New scientific publication on the factors influencing informal carers' acceptance of assistive telecare systems in the pre‐ and post‐implementation phase

Assist. Prof. Simona Hvalič Touzery, PhD, Katja Prevodnik, PhD, and assoc. prof. Vesna Dolničar, PhD (Centre for Social Informatics) have jointly published a scientific article entitled “Factors influencing informal carers' acceptance of assistive telecare systems in the pre‐ and post‐implementation phase: A scoping study” in the journal Health and Social Care in the Community. The article is available in open access from Wiley.

The paper addresses the lack of technology acceptance frameworks or models that focus on informal carers. A systematic search of five bibliographic databases (Science Direct, Scopus, CINAHL, PubMED and Proquest Social Sciences Database) was conducted, taking into account the established selection criteria. 40 publications published between 2000 and September 2021 were included in the study. The authors developed a framework of acceptance factors of assistive telecare systems (ATs) used by informal carers of older people, uncovered differences between pre- and post-implementation acceptance factors of assistive telecare systems by informal carers of older people, and identified specific acceptance factors of assistive telecare systems used by informal carers. Seven ICs' acceptance factors of ATs are: benefits and concerns about ATs, care situation, the influence of the OP, carer characteristics, perceived need to use and social influence.

The paper is a part of a project Factors impacting intention to use smart technology enabled care serices among family carers of older people in the context of long-distance care (J5-1785), and the research program Internet research (P5-0399), co-financed by the Slovenian Research Agency from the state budget.