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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Safety vs privacy
— elderly persons' experiences of a mobile safety alarm | | Author(s) | Anita Melander-Wikman, Yiva Fältholm, Gunvor Gard |
| Journal title | Health and Social Care in the Community, vol 16, no 4, July 2008 |
| Pages | pp 337-346 |
| Source | http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/hsc |
| Keywords | Alarm systems ; Emergency devices ; Safety devices ; Attitude ; Mobility ; Rights [elderly] ; Qualitative Studies ; Sweden. |
| Annotation | New Information and communication technology (ICT) and services can be used to further health care. To enable older people to remain at home for as long as possible, various kinds of technology such as safety alarms, are being used in the home. This Swedish study describes the experiences of older people through testing a prototype mobile safety alarm in development and their reasoning about safety, privacy and mobility. Five older people with functional limitations and four healthy older people from a pensioners organisation tested the alarm. The mobile alarm with a drop sensor and a positioning device was tested for 6 weeks. The intervention was evaluated with qualitative interviews and analysed with latent content analysis. Results showed four main categories: feeling safe; being positioned and supervised; being mobile; and reflecting on new technology. From these categories the overarching category "safety and mobility are more important than privacy" emerged. The mobile safety alarm was perceived to offer an increased opportunity for mobility in terms of being more active and as an aid for self-determination. The fact that informants were located by means of the positioning device was not experienced as violating privacy as long as they could decide how to use the alarm. It was concluded that this alarm was experienced as a tool to be active and mobile. As a way to keep self-determination and empowerment, the individual has to make a "cost-benefit" analysis where privacy is sacrificed to the benefit of mobility and safety. The participants were actively contributing to the development process. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-080703202 A |
| Classmark | OV: OU: OT: DP: C4: IKR: 3DP: 76P |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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