The effects of assistive technologies on family caregivers: A secondary analysis

The purpose of this study was to explore family caregivers' perceptions of the use of assistive technology to manage care, through secondary analysis of data from the Healthy@home 2.0 survey. An online survey conducted by Knowledge Panel (KP) was distributed via email invitation to those who met the qualifications for the sample. The data was collected between November 22 and November 29,2010. The sample (N = 1, 152) consisted of caregivers between the ages of 45 to 75 years. This study examined a total of 31 questions assessing caregivers' actual use, awareness, willingness, enablers, and barriers to assistive technology. Assistive technologies have become crucial when caring for patients at home. Assistive technologies can help cut healthcare cost by shorter hospital stay and assist the elderly to continue to live independently at home and caring for themselves or with the help of family members. The findings highlighted that most participants are willing to use the assistive technologies despite a high reporting of barriers. Despite some limitations in this study, these highlighted findings will present some understanding into the perception of assistive technologies in the caregivers