Factors influencing trust in Ambient Assisted Living Technology: A scenario-based analysis

Demographic aging in Germany and the related structural change in the health care sector enable a market for assistive technologies for elderly people in a home living environment. The objective of this study is a scenario-based analysis regarding trust in Ambient Assisted Living (AAL). A standardized questionnaire survey with 292 participants from 50 to 93 years of age was conducted in Germany. Two different interview groups, people who need support in daily life due to different kinds of impairment and people without need for care, have been considered. The analysis was using correlation and stepwise regression analysis. As an important finding, a strong relationship between trust in AAL and an intention to use AAL can be highlighted. The significant influencing factors on trust are expected reliability, perceived ease of use, and perceived usefulness of AAL. Information procurement, interest in technology, and perceived health status are further variables which directly influence the end-user intention to use. People with need for care showed lower trust and intention to use values than people without need for care. The analyses show additionally that younger as well as participants with better perceived health status have higher trust values and more intention to use AAL based on the two scenarios. In contrast to a former study in the AAL context, gender has no significant influence on trust. In the future, further experimental studies with focus on elderly persons’ trust in AAL will be performed. These experiments will include, on the one hand, personal remote assistance for the end-user and, on the other hand, variation of actual reliability of AAL technology.