The “ELDERDES” model: how older adults' adoption of digital environment solutions improves residential experiences, health outcomes, and enables independent living

TL;DR

The ELDERDES model explores how older adults use digital technologies in their homes to improve safety, health, and independence as they age.

Contribution

The ELDERDES model introduces a framework for understanding how older adults adopt digital environment solutions to enhance their living experiences and health outcomes.

Findings

Digital environment solutions can improve safety and health by monitoring risks like falls and dangerous temperatures.

Older adults can maintain independence through virtual access to services and reduced reliance on physical community resources.

Adopting digital technologies in homes may become a more important focus for aging research than traditional physical adaptations.

Abstract

Global increases in longevity have led to a rapidly growing population of older adults entering advanced old age, facing increased risks of chronic illness, mobility limitations, sensory impairments, cognitive decline, poor emotional health, and social losses. These vulnerabilities make it more difficult for them to maintain independent living arrangements and to age optimally in their current homes, neighborhoods, and communities. Routine tasks like climbing stairs, reaching high shelves, or avoiding slippery floors become unsafe. Older people struggle to reach inhospitable community destinations to meet their obligatory and discretionary needs. As their “activity spaces” shrink to the home's confines, they experience new health stressors that further complicate age-related declines. Research and intervention strategies have emphasized making homes age-ready and reducing barriers to community access. However, rapid advances in digital technologies necessitate a reevaluation of how older adults interact with their surroundings. Homes can function as digital environments, equipped with internet-connected devices and AI-powered software. Interior sensors can detect dangerous temperatures, and wearables can monitor vital signs and medications. Motion detectors can summon emergency responses in the event of falls or other medical emergencies. Older adults can access virtual or “digital destinations” in real time—to buy goods, order food, use patient portals, access financial or government services, and engage in social or recreational activities. We are witnessing a paradigm shift in how older adults can maintain their independence and age in place. Their homes have transformed into environmental monitoring hubs and digital control centers, increasing their safety and health and reducing their dependence on neighborhood and community resources. Although older people are increasingly adopting these solutions, many remain reluctant. This provides the rationale for the ELDERDES model, which identifies the factors that influence older adults' adoption of digital environment technologies and how four categories of digital environment solutions (DES) contribute to their positive residential experiences, improved health outcomes, independent living, and optimal aging. There are many reasons to argue that increasing older people's access to their digital environments will become a more salient arena for research and intervention than primarily adapting the features of their traditional physical or social environments.

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