Designing new dignified technology for care settings in participation with older people

Abstract

One of the crucial components of successful ageing is to live independently in old age. Yet in UK alone, nearly 300000 older people require assistance with 3 or more essential daily tasks like eating, bathing and mobility which compromises on their independent living. In this situation, Digital Health Technologies can be a potential solution to promote healthy ageing, support psycho-social wellbeing and enhance independent living for older people. Such technologies comprise a wide range of products used in the health and care services including apps, software and online platforms to benefit people. Yet they are barely adopted by older people as they do not reflect their actual user needs leading to poor acceptance of digital health technologies in homecare settings.
This study aims to co-design digital health technologies with participation of older people living on the south coast of England and southwest of Scotland. Co-design approach with a lifeworld led phenomenological underpinnings was utilized for this study. 14 older participants with mean age of 72.2 years were purposively selected through recruitment via multiple charity organizations in UK. Participants were initially requested to provide photographs of the digital health technologies used in their everyday life. Following this, data was collected in-person and virtually through open ended in-depth interviews attuned to lifeworld theoretical underpinnings, here photovoice was used as a tool to enhance in-depth data elicitation. The data was analysed using reflective lifeworld principles attuned to ‘a dignity sensitive lens’ to gain deep insight to the barriers and facilitators to digital health technology adoption amongst older people. Following this, two co-design workshops were held virtually with 3 participants each influenced by dialogal phenomenology to develop understandings of the concept of dignity in relation to the human-technology relationship and in turn strategize ways to improve acceptance of digital health technologies for older people.
Study results indicate that human values of trust, autonomy, empathy and sense of security are central and essential to influence the sense of dignity within human-technology relationships. Privacy issues in particular rupture the sense of security for older people and result ‘in wounding’ the dignity of the individual. Aspects of visual objectification emerged; the lived body initiated an objectification of the virtual body during telehealth consultations. Therefore, a fragmentation towards a sense of the disembodied individual was visible in some instances, potentially leading to assailment of the dignity of human embodiment. Mutual intrinsic valuing (participant and caring professional) of each other’s experiences could mediate this and guard interpersonal dignity. Digital technology has potential to divert older persons from their passion, contribute to lack of recognition of bodily vulnerabilities and challenge the autonomy of individuals, all of which can assail human dignity. Strategies to create guidelines and policies which are specific to the needs of older people and which promote engagement with technologies in a way that can enhance sensory experiences might have better acceptance from older people.

Date of Award	Mar 2026
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Brighton
Supervisor	Kathleen Galvin (Supervisor), Theo Fotis (Supervisor) & Lisbeth Uhrenfeldt (Supervisor)