Technological advances dedicated to aging population and their lifestyle have been increasingly absorbing attention to the level that new academic majors have even been established in fine universities across the nation. For instance, right here local to us, University of Southern California (USC) is now offering Master of Arts in Gerontology (MAG) and Master of Aging Services Management (MASM).
The main drive for the increased emphasis on further development of technologies associated with aging population is rooted in the senior’s love for trying new things. Out of the 48-million population of senior over 65-year-old, more than 50% uses a desktop, laptop or tablet, and 80% owns a smartphone device. More than 70% of seniors knows to use internet and does use it regularly, while a staggering 80% uses social media to stay in touch with friends and families. Therefore, it is safe to say that cliché perspective of saying seniors struggle to adapt to new technologies is wrong, while the exact opposite is true where the extent to which seniors have adapted to new technologies is extraordinary. To a lesser degree, stats have also shown that there could be correlation between education & income levels, and the adoption of new technologies. 87% of senior citizens who possess a college degree are comfortable using new technologies, where this figure is at 40% for senior citizens with less than a high school degree. Similarly, 86% of seniors with an annual household income of $50,000-$75,000 have adopted new technologies, whereas 40% rate for seniors with households earning less than $30,000 per year.
Even though the majority of seniors are enthusiastic about new technologies, sometimes the experience does not go as smooth as it should. One of the main reasons is chronic conditions. 80% of all seniors suffer from one or multiple chronic conditions, which would inherently impact the ability to use the new technologies, especially if they were designed with young users in mind or if they were designed to boost health and fitness. Another major impediment for adapting to use of new technologies is the ease of use, especially when learning to navigate a new device. More than 80% of all seniors indicated discomfort or other issues related to learning how to use a new device. Further, more than 50% indicated that they would require assistance in accessing social media sites on their smartphone, tablet or computer. After all, the trend is definitely toward prevalent use of new technologies by seniors. In 2015 alone, more than 60% of the $6B spent on health startups operating in the digital field was dedicated to companies engaged in providing health care products & services for seniors and aging population. By the year 2050, United States will have an increased population of 92 million seniors over the age of 65. Therefore, there is a compelling need for working around barriers and obstacles on the way of having the most smooth and well-received experience by the seniors in adopting to new methods, devices, and technologies as part of their daily, routine life.
As part of this progressive trend in integrating new technologies in the seniors’ lifestyle, service providers, in-home caregivers, homecare aids, and nurses should also evolve their skill set to embrace the new methodologies of care. Passion would always be the most important virtue of a caregiver, but it soon will not be enough to provide the excellent care that our seniors and loved ones deserve. That is why at Redan Medical Homehealth, we constantly strive to keep our caregivers updated with the state-of-the-art methods and technologies in homecare.
“Passion would always be the most important virtue of a caregiver, but it soon will not be enough to provide the excellent care that our seniors and loved ones deserve.”
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