Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Richard W. Pew and Susan B. Van Hemel, Editors, Steering Committee for the Workshop on Technology for Adaptive Aging, National Research Council

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TECHNOLOGY FOR ADAPTIVE AGING

National Academies Press

Contents

PREFACE...............................................................................................................................ixEXECUTIVE SUMMARY.....................................................................................................................1PART I. STEERING COMMITTEE REPORT1 Introduction and Overview...........................................................................................................9PART II. OVERVIEW PAPERS2 Cognitive Aging K. Warner Schaie...................................................................................................433 Movement Control in the Older Adult Caroline J. Ketcham and George E. Stelmach.....................................................644 Methodological Issues in the Assessment of Technology Use for Older Adults Christopher Hertzog and Leah Light.....................93PART III. DOMAIN-SPECIFIC PAPERS5 Addressing the Communication Needs of an Aging Society Susan Kemper and Jose C. Lacal..............................................1316 Technology and Employment Sara J. Czaja and Phyllis Moen...........................................................................1507 Everyday Health: Technology for Adaptive Aging Eric Dishman, Judith Matthews, and Jacqueline Dunbar-Jacob..........................1798 Technology and Learning in Current and Future Older Cohorts Sherry L. Willis.......................................................2099 The Impact of Technology on Living Environments for Older Adults Ann Horgas and Gregory Abowd......................................23010 Personal Vehicle Transportation Joachim Meyer.....................................................................................253APPENDIXESA Workshop Materials.................................................................................................................283B Biographical Sketches..............................................................................................................291

Chapter One

The Workshop on Technology for Adaptive Aging was designed to identify high-payoff areas in the development of technological devices that assist people who are aging normally, as well as those with disabilities and impairments. From the many candidate domains identified as important in the daily life of older adults, the steering committee focused on six: communication, employment, health, learning, living environments, and transportation. This volume consists of commentary by the steering committee on the workshop topics together with the complete set of papers presented.

CHANGES WITH AGING

The life-span effects of aging include changes in sensory, perceptual, and motor performance and in cognitive functioning and the ability to operate in the world. While much is known about changes that can be measured in tightly controlled laboratory tasks and environments, less is known about the implications of these changes for everyday tasks and activities under natural conditions. The steering committee recommends National Institute on Aging support of research designed to develop such knowledge, to support design of technologies that will be useful and usable for older adults.

There is a need to develop research designs and measurement and analysis techniques to enable more naturalistic studies of proposed and emerging technologies for older adults. In particular, longitudinal studies are needed to learn about how use and acceptance of technologies evolves over time. The steering committee recommends support of such methodological work by the National Institute on Aging.

TECHNOLOGY IN DAILY LIFE

Many factors could potentially affect the acceptance and success of any new technology for older adults. The steering committee developed a list of such factors for consideration when applicable in each of the selected domains: access, cohorts, culture and language, customization, expectations, legal constraints, stereotyping, privacy, safety, training, trust, usability, and control, autonomy, and dignity.

Communication Exciting possibilities exist for new technologies to support older adults and their caretakers and to enable the maintenance of social contacts for those whose mobility is reduced. Technology developers must understand the special communication needs and the cognitive, affective, and sensory characteristics of older people and take these into account in developing technology for this population. Three major barriers impede communication with and for older adults: overaccommodation to aging, word retrieval, and multitasking; each has implications for the design of communication technology for older adults. Specific technologies of interest include "mobile communication and computing devices" or MCCDs, which can combine features currently available in mobile telephones, personal digital assistants, and more. The challenges involved in designing MCCDs to be acceptable to and usable by aging users include usability, the need for adaptive interfaces, and privacy concerns. Development of successful technology solutions will require cooperative work by technologists and behavioral and social scientists.

Employment Recent and predicted future changes in career and retirement patterns in American society and in the age-related demographics of the U.S. population have implications for the development of technological innovations. The size of the older population will increase rapidly as the baby boomers age, with a concomitant reduction in the proportion of younger adults. The research literature documents age-related changes in abilities and work performance, as well as in occupational trends. Technology has specific effects on work and especially on older workers, with significant differences in cohort responses to new technology. Technology can help older workers remain employed and maintain or upgrade their skills, as well as support the transition to retirement, through adaptive interfaces and other means of supporting computer input and output, software to provide planning and cueing assistance, and health monitoring devices. Research is needed on behavioral, social, and technological issues relating to older workers, particularly given the many influences that are converging to require society to develop new responses to the employment and retirement issues of these workers.

Health Systems have been developed for monitoring the health of older adults in their homes and for enabling independent living for as long as possible. Changing views of healthcare see it less as a way to respond to disease than as an attitude of "How can we help you live your life well?" A transition in healthcare delivery systems is taking place, from today's clinic-centered model to a community-centered model, with the maintenance of good health as a primary goal. There is a large literature on aging and health that describes the changes in health status that commonly accompany aging. One important development is that of "telehealth" systems, which can be embedded in a person's living environment. Useful technologies include wireless broadband, microelectronic mechanical systems, lab-on-a-chip devices, and activity sensors. It is essential to develop the software needed to transform the huge amounts of data generated by these systems into information useful to healthcare workers,...