The Role of Technology for Healthy Aging Among Rural and Minority Older Women

Abstract

Technology has the potential to change the way we age in our environment. The application of technologies to aging in place must be determined with a knowledge of cultural issues and individual preferences. This is a qualitative study designed to explore attitudes and values of older women towards innovative technologies. The research targets groups at high risk of being underserved in traditional health care systems: older rural women and older Native Americans, Latinas, and Korean immigrants. Eighty Oregon women will participate in one of ten focus groups, recruited through convenience and snowball sampling techniques. The focus groups will utilize video vignettes showing the use of technology in elders’ homes. The vignettes will be stimuli for discussion regarding participants’ attitudes toward technology in their homes and lives. The focus groups will be videotaped and transcribed and interpreted with qualitative analysis techniques through MAXqds2 ® software. Results will be reported in professional conferences and published in scholarly journals.ionally, we will examine the differences between healthy elders and those with MCI on these variables.