University of Twente Student Theses
Informal Caregivers’ Acceptance Towards In-Home Monitoring Technology for Home-Based Dementia care and Its Determinants
Akgül, M.T.D. (2022) Informal Caregivers’ Acceptance Towards In-Home Monitoring Technology for Home-Based Dementia care and Its Determinants.
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| Abstract: | Background: Dementia cases are globally increasing in number while the residential care possibilities of elderly are limited and the workload of formal caregivers remains high. This, together with the preference of elderly for extended independent living, leads to most of dementia care being provided in-home by informal caregivers like spouses and children. However, providing informal care can result in much strain on the informal caregivers, in extreme cases making them the invisible second patient due to resulting stress-related illnesses. A possible solution to this issue is the employment of in-home monitoring technology for home-based dementia care, which enables informal caregivers to remotely monitor their care recipient and enables the care recipient to live at home for longer. More specifically, in-home monitoring technologies remotely provide informal caregivers with information regarding the safety, lifestyle and daily functioning of their loved one at any time. This intervention has the potential to relieve informal caregivers of people with dementia from the high burden they experience as a result of providing care. However, this potential and a successful implementation can only be realised if in-home monitoring technology is fully accepted by the end-users. Objective: The objective of this study was to explore the general acceptance towards in-home monitoring technology among informal caregivers of people with dementia. In addition, their acceptance towards different monitoring technologies and towards different care scenarios in which in-home monitoring technology can be utilized was explored. Moreover, in search of possible determinants of user acceptance of in-home monitoring technology among informal caregivers of people with dementia, it was explored to what extent digital literacy, personal innovativeness and the size of care network an informal caregiver is part of are associated with their general acceptance towards in-home monitoring technology. Methods: A cross-sectional quantitative study was conducted by means of an online survey. 110 participants took part which were acquired through a combination of non-probability convenience sampling and snowball sampling. Participants were informal caregivers of whom the digital literacy, personal innovativeness, size of care network, general acceptance towards in-home monitoring technology, acceptance towards different care scenarios in which in-home monitoring technology could be utilized and the acceptance towards different monitoring technologies was explored in the survey. To examine the levels of digital literacy, personal innovativeness and acceptance in the sample, descriptive statistics were used. Next to that, to examine differences in acceptance towards different care scenarios and towards different devices, Friedman’s tests in combination with post-hoc Wilcoxon signed-rank tests were conducted. Furthermore, non-parametric Spearman correlation analyses were employed to assess the relevant associations of digital literacy and personal innovativeness with the general acceptance towards in-home monitoring technology. Lastly, a non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis test was employed to assess the association of size of care network with informal caregivers’ general acceptance towards in-home monitoring technology for home-based dementia care. Results: Informal caregivers of people with dementia in the sample showed slightly positive levels of acceptance in general, towards different care scenarios and towards different monitoring technologies. Namely, for the general acceptance a median acceptance rating of 3.6 (IQR = 0.89) out of 5 was obtained. For the acceptance towards in-home monitoring technology for different care scenarios, median acceptance ratings ranged from 3.5 to 3.7 across the different scenarios. For the acceptance towards different types of monitoring technologies, the median acceptance rating for each different technology was 4.0, with interquartile ranges ranging from 1.0 to 2.0. Moreover, Friedman’s tests indicated that informal caregivers’ acceptance towards different scenarios (Fr = 13.00, p = .011) and towards different types of monitoring technologies (Fr = 14.18, p = .007) significantly differed. Namely, post-hoc Wilcoxon signed-rank tests indicated significant differences in acceptance between the scenario ‘acute situations’ and all other care scenarios, with ‘acute situations’ being the most accepted scenario. Also, significant differences in acceptance were found between visual devices and radiofrequency devices (Z = -2.8, p = .004), between visual devices and object-attached devices (Z = -3.4, p = .001) and between auditory devices and object-attached devices (Z = -2.1, p = .037), with visual and auditory devices being the least accepted respectively. For the explored associations, Spearman’s rho indicated both digital literacy (rs = .22, p = .02) and personal innovativeness (rs = .35, p = .00) to be significantly correlated with the general acceptance towards in-home monitoring technology. Lastly, a Kruskal-Wallis test indicated no significant association (p = .78) between the size of care network an informal caregiver is part of and their general acceptance towards in-home monitoring technology for home-based dementia care. Conclusions: In order to realise the potential of in-home monitoring technology for home-based dementia care, such a technology and its subsequent implementation must be fully accepted among end-users. This study found positive levels of acceptance in the sample as well as two significant predictors of user acceptance of in-home monitoring technology for home-based dementia care. Namely, the digital literacy and personal innovativeness of end-users must be adequately met in the pre- and post-implementation of in-home monitoring technology for dementia care. However, limitations in this study exist, and further research must be conducted into the acceptance of in-home monitoring technology for home-based dementia care and its determinants as well as into other factors that influence a successful implementation. |
| Item Type: | Essay (Bachelor) |
| Faculty: | BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences |
| Subject: | 77 psychology |
| Programme: | Psychology BSc (56604) |
| Link to this item: | https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/91422 |
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