A Novel Instrument for Measuring Older People's Attitudes Toward Technology (TechPH): Development and Validation

Area of Science:

• Gerontology
• Health Informatics
• Psychometrics

Background:

• Health technology adoption by older adults is increasing due to demographic shifts.
• Effective health technology requires age-appropriate design and user acceptance.
• Assessing older adults' technology adoption and its impact necessitates validated instruments.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a concise and user-friendly instrument measuring technophilia in older adults.
• To refine existing technophilia measures for evaluating health technology interventions.
• To create a tool for assessing attitudes and enthusiasm towards technology in the elderly population.

Main Methods:

• Content analysis of existing technophilia instruments informed item generation.
• Exploratory factor analysis (N=374, age 65+) reduced the scale to six items.
• Confirmatory factor analysis validated the refined instrument's structure and reliability.

Main Results:

• Exploratory factor analysis identified two factors: techEnthusiasm (Cronbach's α=.72) and techAnxiety (Cronbach's α=.68).
• Confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the two-factor structure with excellent model fit indices.
• The validated TechPH instrument demonstrated good internal consistency and reliability.

Conclusions:

• The developed TechPH instrument effectively measures older adults' attitudes towards technology.
• TechPH scores correlate with external criteria and differentiate user adaptation behaviors.
• Further validation in diverse populations and contexts is recommended for broader application.