CDI Researchers Publish Article in Disability and Rehabilitation: Assistive Technology
Dr. Lea Lebar, Izidor Natek, dr. Simona Hvalič Touzery and dr. Vesna Dolničar, members of the Centre for Social Informatics (CDI), in collaboration with Dr. Jeffrey W. Jutai (University of Ottawa, Canada), have published an original scientific article titled “Evaluating the psychosocial impacts of e-care use among older people receiving long-term care in Slovenia through the adapted PIADS-10 scale” in the international journal Disability and Rehabilitation: Assistive Technology.
The article examines the psychosocial impacts of e-care use among older adults receiving long-term care in Slovenia. The study is based on an intervention design and includes 217 older participants who used e-care services for an average of approximately 310 days. The findings indicate that e-care can significantly enhance feelings of safety, perceived control over everyday life, independence, and overall quality of life.
The paper also makes an important methodological contribution. The authors tested the PIADS-10 instrument, commonly used to assess the psychosocial impact of assistive technologies, and based on factor analysis, propose a shortened 8-item version (SI-PIADS-8) with two dimensions (psychological well-being and adaptability). This revised scale appears to be more suitable for evaluating the effects of e-care use among older adults. The findings are relevant for researchers as well as service designers and policymakers, as they provide empirical evidence that e-care can play a key role in supporting safe ageing at home and improving the development of long-term care solutions.
The study was conducted within projects supported by the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Slovenia, under grant numbers C2711-18-026336 (Evaluation of the pilot projects in the field of long-term care) and C2711-19-026329 (Evaluation of the project Transforming existing networks to provide community-based care services and programs for older adults), as well as the research project J5-4578 (Digital transformation of health and social care: Welfare technology acceptance and knowledge among current and future healthcare and social care professional) and the research programme P5-0399 (Internet Research Programme).