Zhang, Mengxi; (2024) Older People’s Acceptance and Engagement in Emerging Health Technologies. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

The digitalisation of health technology has become an essential part of the ageing society. My thesis aims to examine older people’s acceptance and participation in health technology in the context of China and the UK. Based on co-production and actor-network theory, I try to understand how health technology evolves together with the concept of ageing, older people’s attitudes towards health technology and participation in the development of health technology, and the interactions of older people, caregivers, technology workers and other non-human actors in these processes. To answer these questions, I conducted semi-structured interviews and focus groups with sixty older people in China and the UK, ten caregivers and ten technology workers. I found that firstly, older people’s different perceptions of ageing are associated with varied use of health technology. Positive attitudes towards ageing generate demand for and participation in health technology, while health technology can also facilitate and quantify healthy, successful and active ageing and change older people’s relationship with caregivers and other parts of society. Secondly, older people’s participation in the development of health technology is limited and they have doubts about empowerment. Thirdly, in the network of various actors (older people, health technology, caregivers, technology workers and policies, etc.), older people may not have full ownership of health technology but are co-opted into the prescribed goal of the technology, subject to interference from caregivers and passively share their health data. Contextual factors can make a difference in these processes based on culture, social systems and people’s trust in policies. My thesis concludes by emphasising older people’s diverse identity rather than vulnerability, cautious processing of health data and deeper consideration of the impact of health technology on equality, which helps bring the discussion back from a technology-centred perspective to the social aspects of technology acceptance.

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