Investigating Drivers of Telecare Acceptance to Improve Healthcare Quality for Independently Living Older Adults.

Background - Contemporary telecare systems facilitate the ability for older adults to age in place, keeping them out of residential care facilities and providing numerous quality-of-life advantages for both care receivers and caregivers. However, despite the acceptance of digital health interventions among older adults and their caregivers' telecare adoption has been slower than expected. This paper aimed to compare attitudes towards adopting telecare systems between care receivers (aging adults) and their caregivers (family/friends). Methods -Data was collected via an online survey. Respondents included aging adults concerned about their care (care receivers), and older adults who cared for an aging loved one (caregivers). Analysis of covariance and partial-least-squares techniques were used to examine the relationships between healthcare concerns for older adults, functional telecare benefits, and telecare acceptance. Results - Concerns for health care status, mainly driven by care receivers, positively impacted telecare acceptance. However, concerns for mental and physical stimulation had a negative relationship with telecare acceptance, while caregivers showed a neutral relationship. Telecare's ability to improve healthcare quality and cognitive stimulation positively impacted its acceptance. Caregivers mainly drove the impact of healthcare quality on telecare acceptance, while the relationship was not significant for care receivers. Care receivers' age reduced telecare acceptance, and higher educational levels of caregivers increased telecare acceptance. Conclusion - We found significant differences in telecare acceptance and its drivers between caregivers and care receivers in the US. In addition, we discerned that not all healthcare concerns or functional telecare characteristics influenced telecare acceptance equally between the two. Consequently, telecare providers must consider the different needs of constituencies interested in telecare to support the life quality of older adults.