Digital Assistance Technology Field Trial

Name	File Type	Size	Last Modified
Data.zip	application/zip	5.9 MB	03/25/2025 11:36:AM
Technical Reports.zip	application/zip	5.3 MB	03/31/2025 09:27:AM

Project Citation:

Rogers, Wendy. Digital Assistance Technology Field Trial . Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2025-03-31. https://doi.org/10.3886/E222562V1

Project Description

Summary: This study was conducted as part of the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Technologies to Support Aging among People with Long-Term Disabilities (RERC TechSAge). The study evaluated the efficacy of digital assistance technologies in the homes of older adults aging with mobility disability, the benefits of the technologies, facilitators and barriers to learning to use the technologies and what perceptions do older adults have on these technologies. The technologies used were the Amazon Echo Show 8, Amazon Smart Plug, and Philips Hue Smart Lightbulb. Participants were asked to respond to different survey data and interview questions during periodic research encounters held over Zoom teleconferencing software such as what they used the technologies for, how confident they are in using the technologies and how the technologies have helped them. Study research encountes were done at 5 time points, the Orientation (T1), Initial Set Up (T2), 1-week (T3), 5-week (T4), and the optional 10-week (T5).

Funding Sources: National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (90REGE0006-01-00)

Scope of Project

Subject Terms: interview; survey

Geographic Coverage: United States

Time Period(s): 8/2022 – 7/2023

Collection Date(s): 8/2022 – 7/2023

Universe: Older adults aged 60+ in the United States aging with mobility disabilities.

Data Type(s): survey data

Methodology

Response Rate: Out of the 41 people who expressed interest in the study, 38 completed the telephone screening. 9 people were excluded from participating due to prior ownership and experience using the smart technologies used in the study (n=5), not having access to Zoom (n=1), not having a mobility disability for at least 10 years (n=1), and failure to attend the orientation session (n=2). A total of 29 people completed the Orientation interview a researcher. Of these, 3 people withdrew from the study due to privacy concerns with the technologies (n=1), not attending the first research encounter (n=1), and disclosing the daily use of study technologies disqualifying them from participation (n=1). 26 people completed the initial set up research encounter with one person withdrawing from the study due to personal technology not being compatible with required study technology. 25 people completed the 1-week research encounter with one person withdrawing from the study due to not attending their next research encounter. The study concluded with 24 people participating in the 5-week research encounter and 14 people participating in the optional 10-week research encounter where 10 people declined participation in the 10-week follow-up and 1 person who did not attend their scheduled research encounter. The final sample size of the main research study (orientation-5-week) includes 24 older adults (58.5% response rate) and 14 older adults who completed the optional 10-week follow-up (34% response rate).

Sampling: Convenience sample

Collection Mode(s): face-to-face interview; telephone interview

Scales: Several Likert-type scales were used. See Methods Overview technical report for information on source materials and the full assessments (Blocker, Kadylak, Lachs, Hussaini, Lim, & Rogers, 2023).

Unit(s) of Observation: Individuals

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Published Versions

V1 [2025-03-31]

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