The Acceptance and Use of Virtual Gaming as an Intervention Strategy for Older Adults in Occupational Therapy

With the advent of occupational therapists' use of virtual gaming as an intervention strategy to enhance the occupational performance of many populations, there is a need to better understand the factors influencing occupational therapists' acceptance and use of this strategy as it pertains to specific groups. This study investigated the appropriateness of using the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) to predict what drives occupational therapists' use of this ad hoc, intuitive, and idiosyncratic intervention strategy with their older adult clients.

A cross-sectional Web-based survey of occupational therapists who primarily work with older adults was designed to measure constructs based from the validated UTAUT. Evidence was elicited from 516 occupational therapists. Analyses included descriptive analyses, Cronbach's alpha reliability analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and examination of goodness of fit criteria and factor loading indicators.

The results confirmed that performance expectancy, attitude, and social influence significantly contribute to occupational therapists' behavioral intention to use off-the-shelf virtual gaming as an intervention strategy with older adults in occupational therapy. Contrary to technology acceptance research, performance expectancy had a negative impact on behavioral intention in this study. The research model explained 83 percent of the variance in behavioral intention and 30 percent of the variance in use behavior.

The study demonstrates that the UTAUT model provides an effective means to understand occupational therapists' acceptance and use of off-the-shelf virtual gaming as an intervention strategy with their older adult clients.