TY  - JOUR
AU  - Gudowsky, Niklas
AU  - Bechtold, Ulrike
AU  - Capari, Leo
AU  - Sotoudeh, Mahshid
PY  - 2019
DA  - 2019/06/27
TI  - Wrinkles and Smiles — What is Good Aging? A Technology Assessment Perspective
JO  - OBM Geriatrics
SP  - 058
VL  - 03
IS  - 02
AB  - Background: Quality or healthy aging refers to well-being in an older age. In the light of recent changes in the discourse on approaches on positive aging, we aimed to study the way “quality aging” is understood, expressed, and dealt with as a part of contemporary technology assessment (TA), since the nexus between demographic and technological changes has remained a staple topic in TA for at least three decades.
Methods: A bottom-up qualitative content analysis was performed to identify the concepts of quality aging in the final reports of a sample of five recent national and international (predominantly participatory) TA projects (pTA). Despite being highly variable in contexts, methods, topics, and funding schemes, these projects display a common core of investigating desirable frameworks and futures for an aging society from the perspective of a citizen, stakeholder, and expert. We identified overarching patterns across different reports through clustering of codified texts and meta-analysis.
Results: As a recurring pattern, we identified seven primary topical sectors, known as the building blocks of what may be attributed a TA perspective on quality aging: ethics, resources, activity, interaction, education, health, and policy. These are described by referring to a network of more than 40 topical sub-themes.
Conclusions: The findings from the present study emphasize the need for a changed view on aging for individuals, their peers and society; a discussion of resources required to choose, understand, purchase, install, and properly maintain supportive technologies; and more integrated policy measures creating trust in communal services and infrastructure; and avoiding marginalizing and stigmatizing aging as a problem and as an ever-lasting economic challenge.
SN  - 2638-1311
UR  - https://doi.org/10.21926/obm.geriatr.1902058
DO  - 10.21926/obm.geriatr.1902058
ID  - Gudowsky2019
ER  -