Why Older Adults Integrate Digital Health Technology Into Their Everyday Lives: The Role of Basic Psychological Needs
Résumé
There is growing consensus on the potential of digital health technology to improve individual health and well‐being outcomes. Existing research examining digital health technology adoption among underserved populations has largely relied upon theoretical lenses with an emphasis on perceived benefits and costs at the preadoption or initial use stage. This study demonstrates an alternative approach, relying on basic psychological needs as an explanatory framework to explore how and why older adults integrate digital health technologies into their everyday lives in a sustained manner. A whole‐of‐community approach was taken to examine this question, with 17 focus groups held with 107 older adults, volunteers, and the people who work with them. Overall, we found that the integration of digital health technology into the day‐to‐day life of older adults is contingent on the different ways in which it satisfies or frustrates the basic needs of competence, autonomy, and relatedness. The social environment, user interface design choices, reward, and feedback systems were found to both satisfy and frustrate needs. Researchers and designers intending to study or implement digital health technology for older adults ought to consider how different implementation decisions impact psychological needs.