research-article

Technology to reduce social isolation and loneliness

Authors:

Sarah Crosskey,

Veronique Boscart,

Barbara Barbosa NevesAuthors Info & Claims

ASSETS '14: Proceedings of the 16th international ACM SIGACCESS conference on Computers & accessibility

Pages 27 - 34

https://doi.org/10.1145/2661334.2661375

Published: 20 October 2014 Publication History

Abstract

Large numbers of individuals, many of them senior citizens, live in social isolation. This typically leads to loneliness, depression, and vulnerability, and subsequently to other negative health consequences. We report on research focused on understanding the communication needs of people in environments associated with social isolation and loneliness, and how technology facilitates social connection. Our work consists of successive iterations of field studies and technology prototype design, deployment, and analysis. Particular attention is paid to seniors in retirement communities and in long-term care settings (nursing homes). We present design implications for technology to enable seniors' social connections, the "InTouch" prototype that satisfies most of the implications, and a report on one older adult's experience of InTouch.

References

[1]

AARP (2010). Loneliness Among Older Adults: A National Survey of Adults 45+, Sept. 2010).

[2]

Anderson, D. N. (2001). Treating depression in old age: the reasons to be positive. Age & Ageing 30, 13--17).

[3]

Benjamin, A., Birnholtz, J., Baecker, R.M., and Gromala, D. (2012). Impression Management Work: How Seniors With Chronic Pain Address Disruptions in Their Interactions. Proc. ACM CSCW 2012, 799--808).

Digital Library

[4]

Biordi, D. L., & Nicholson, N. R. (2102). Social Isolation. Chronic Illness 8e, 97).

[5]

Blythe, M., Wright, P., Bowers, J., Boucher, A., Jarvis, N., Reynolds, P., & Gaver, B. (2010). Age and experience: Ludic engagement in a residential care setting. Proc. DIS 2010, 161--170).

Digital Library

[6]

Boscart, V., Spence, M., Campigotto, R., Sellen, K., Birnholtz, J., and Baecker. R. (2014). Social Isolation, Loneliness, and Communication Needs of Older Patients in Complex Care Settings, manuscript submitted to Quality of Life Research).

[7]

Cacioppo, J.T. & Patrick, W. (2008). Loneliness: Human nature and the need for social connection. Norton, NY).

[8]

Cannuscio C, Block J, Kawachi I. (2003). Social capital and successful aging: The role of senior housing. Ann. Int. Med. 139; 5; 2; 395--399).

[9]

Cao, X. (2013). Connecting Families across Time Zones. In Neustaedter C, Harrison S, Sellen A. (Eds.), Connecting Families. (127--140). Springer).

[10]

Dadlani, P., Sinitsyn, A., Fontijn, W., & Markopolous, P. (2010, January 6). Aurama: caregiver awareness for living independently with an augmented picture frame display. AI & Society, 25 (2), 233--245).

Digital Library

[11]

David, J. (2013). Communications Technology for Seniors with Chronic Pain, Unpublished M.Sc. thesis, Dept. of Computer Science, Univ. of Toronto).

[12]

Dickinson, A. & Hill, R.L. (2007). Keeping in touch: Talking to older people about computers and communication. Educational Gerontology 33:8, 613--630).

[13]

Edelbrock, D., Buys, L., Creasey, H., & Broe, G. A. (2001). Social support, social networks and social isolation; The Sydney older persons study. Australasian Journal on Ageing, 20(3).

[14]

Ferguson, R.D., Massimi, M., Crist, E., & Moffatt, K. (2104, to appear). Craving, Creating, and Constructing Comfort: Insight and Opportunities for Technology in Hospice, Proc. CSCW).

Digital Library

[15]

Gatchel, R.J., Pen, Y.B., Peters, M.L., Fuchs, P.N., & Turk, D.C. (2007). The Biopsychosocial Approach to Chronic Pain: Scientific Advances and Future Directions, Psychological Bulletin 133(4), 581--624).

[16]

Harrison, S. (2009). Media Space: 20+ years of mediated life. New York: Springer).

Digital Library

[17]

Hindus, D., Mainwaring, S. D., Leduc, N., Hagström, A. E., & Bayley, O. (2001). Casablanca: designing social communication devices for the home. Proc CHI 2001, 325--332).

Digital Library

[18]

House, J. S., Landis, K. R., & Umberson, D. (1988). Social relationships and health. Science 241, 540--545).

[19]

Inkpen, K. M. (2013). Kids & Video: Playing with Friends at a Distance. In Neustaedter C, Harrison S, Sellen A. (Eds.), Connecting Families. (95--123). Springer).

[20]

Judge, T. K., Neustaedter, C., & Harrison, S. (2013). Inter-Family Messaging with Domestic Media Spaces. In Neustaedter C, Harrison S, Sellen A. (Eds.), Connecting Families. (149--157). Springer).

[21]

Kawachi, I. et al. (1996). A Prospective Study of Social Networks in Relation to Total Mortality and Cardiovascular Disease in Men in the USA. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. 50(3): 245--25).

[22]

Klinenberg, E. (2002) Heat wave: a social autopsy of disaster in Chicago. University of Chicago Press).

[23]

Lindley, S.E. (2012). Shades of lightweight: Supporting cross-generational communication through home messaging. Universal Access in the Information Society 11:1, 31--43).

Digital Library

[24]

Litwin, H. (1998). Social network type and health status in a national sample of elderly Israelis. Social Science and Medicine. 46(4--5):599--609).

[25]

Macaranas, E. (2010). Memories in Touch, Unpublished B.A. thesis, OCAD University).

[26]

Mackay, W., Riche, Y., & LaBrune, J-B. (2005). Communication appliances: Shared awareness for intimate social networks. CHI Workshop on Awareness Systems: Known results, theory, concepts and future challenges).

[27]

Matthews, J.L. & Matlock, T. (2011). Understanding the link between spatial distance and social distance. Social Psychology, 42, 185--192).

[28]

Mynatt, E.D., Rowan, J., Craighill, S., & Jacobs, A. (2001). Digital family portraits: supporting peace of mind for extended family members. Proc CHI 2001, 333--340).

Digital Library

[29]

Neustaedter C, Harrison S, Sellen A. (Eds.). (2013). Connecting Families. Springer).

[30]

Nicholson, N.R. (2012). A Review of Social Isolation: An Important but Underassessed Condition in Older Adults, J. Primary Prevent 33: 137--152).

[31]

Perissinotto, C.M., Cenzer, I.S., & Covinsky, K.E. (2012). Loneliness in Older Persons: A Predictor of Functional Decline and Death, Arch Intern Med. 172(14): 1078--1084).

[32]

Pollack CE, von dem Knesebeck O. (2004). Social capital and health among the aged: comparisons between the US & Germany. Health Place 10:4, 383--391).

[33]

Riche, Y., & Mackay, W. (2010). PeerCare: supporting awareness of rhythms and routines for better aging in place. Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), 19(1), 73--104).

Digital Library

[34]

Sayago, S. & Blat, J. (2010). Telling the story of older people e-mailing: An ethnographical study. Int. J. Human-Computer Studies 68, 105--120).

Digital Library

[35]

Sayago, S., Sloan, D., & Blat, J. (2011). Everyday use of computer-mediated communication tools and its evolution over time: An ethnographical study with older people. Interacting with Computers 23, 543--554).

Digital Library

[36]

Schatorjé, R., & Markopoulos, P. (2013). Intra-Family Messaging with Family Circles. In Neustaedter C, Harrison S, Sellen A. (Eds.), Connecting Families. (57--74). Springer).

[37]

Seelye, A.M., Wild, K.V., Larimer, N., Maxwell, S., Kearns, P., & Kaye, J.A. (2012). Reactions to a remote-controlled video-communication robot in seniors' homes: a pilot study of feasibility and acceptance. Telemed J. E Health 18(10), 755--9).

[38]

Sellen, K., Crosskey, S., Beacock, S., Arnold, C., and Baecker, R. (in preparation). Exploring communication patterns and technology use among seniors receiving care).

[39]

Steptoe, A., Shankar, A., Demakakos, P., & Wardle, J. (2013). Social isolation, loneliness, and all- cause mortality in older men and women. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110(5), 5795--5801).

[40]

Strauss, A., & Corbin, J. Basics of Qualitative Research: Techniques and Procedures for Developing Grounded Theory. Sage, 2008).

[41]

Tsai, H-H and Tsai, Y-F (2011). Changes in Depressive Symptoms, Social Support, and Loneliness Over 1 Year After a Minimum 3-Month Videoconference Program for Older Nursing Home Residents. Telemed J. E Health 13(4).

Cited By

Rafael Narváez Carrión CPatricia Luna Guillén AMauricio Rosales Cevallos M(2024)Perspective Chapter: Loneliness through Time – Geographical Distance, Sensibility Isolation, and HyperconnectivityDeterminants of Loneliness10.5772/intechopen.1004126Online publication date: 24-Jan-2024
https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.1004126
Roquet AMartinelli PLampraki CJopp D(2024)Internet Use as a Moderator of the Relationship Between Personal Resources and Stress in Older Adults: Cross-Sectional StudyJMIR Aging10.2196/525557(e52555)Online publication date: 19-Jul-2024
https://doi.org/10.2196/52555
Figueira ICha YBranham S(2024)Intersecting Liminality: Acquiring a Smartphone as a Blind or Low Vision Older AdultProceedings of the 26th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility10.1145/3663548.3675622(1-14)Online publication date: 27-Oct-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3663548.3675622
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

Technology to reduce social isolation and loneliness
1. Human-centered computing
  1. Human computer interaction (HCI)
2. Social and professional topics

Recommendations

Social isolation of older people: the role of domestic technologies
OZCHI '10: Proceedings of the 22nd Conference of the Computer-Human Interaction Special Interest Group of Australia on Computer-Human Interaction

This paper explores the role of domestic technologies for addressing social isolation of older people. Despite the increasing use of information and communication technologies, social isolation remains an issue amongst older people. Assistive ...
Examining social media use among older adults
HT '13: Proceedings of the 24th ACM Conference on Hypertext and Social Media

Social media is a powerful tool that can connect family and friends across long distances as well as link people with similar interests. Social media has been widely adopted by younger adults, but older adults have been less likely to use such ...
The impact of technology on older adults' social isolation

Research indicates that social isolation and loneliness have a negative effect on health and wellbeing among older people. Various technology-based interventions have been offered to reduce social isolation; however, research demonstrating the role of ...

Comments

Please enable JavaScript to view thecomments powered by Disqus.

Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

cover image ACM Conferences

ASSETS '14: Proceedings of the 16th international ACM SIGACCESS conference on Computers & accessibility

October 2014

378 pages

ISBN:9781450327206

DOI:10.1145/2661334

General Chair:
Sri Kurniawan
University of California Santa Cruz, USA
,
Program Chair:
John Richards
IBM Watson Group, USA

Copyright © 2014 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than the author(s) must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected].

Sponsors

SIGACCESS: ACM Special Interest Group on Accessible Computing

Publisher

Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 20 October 2014

Permissions

Request permissions for this article.

Request Permissions

Check for updates

Author Tags

Qualifiers

Research-article

Funding Sources

OCE
Networks of Centres of Excellence of Canada
Revera Inc.
Connect Canada
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
Google

Conference

ASSETS '14

Sponsor:

SIGACCESS

ASSETS '14: The 16th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility

October 20 - 22, 2014

New York, Rochester, USA

Acceptance Rates

ASSETS '14 Paper Acceptance Rate 29 of 106 submissions, 27%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 436 of 1,556 submissions, 28%

Contributors

Other Metrics

View Article Metrics

Bibliometrics & Citations

Bibliometrics

Article Metrics

86
Total Citations
View Citations
4,852
Total Downloads

Downloads (Last 12 months)586
Downloads (Last 6 weeks)76

Reflects downloads up to 25 Nov 2024

Other Metrics

View Author Metrics

Citations

Cited By

Rafael Narváez Carrión CPatricia Luna Guillén AMauricio Rosales Cevallos M(2024)Perspective Chapter: Loneliness through Time – Geographical Distance, Sensibility Isolation, and HyperconnectivityDeterminants of Loneliness10.5772/intechopen.1004126Online publication date: 24-Jan-2024
https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.1004126
Roquet AMartinelli PLampraki CJopp D(2024)Internet Use as a Moderator of the Relationship Between Personal Resources and Stress in Older Adults: Cross-Sectional StudyJMIR Aging10.2196/525557(e52555)Online publication date: 19-Jul-2024
https://doi.org/10.2196/52555
Figueira ICha YBranham S(2024)Intersecting Liminality: Acquiring a Smartphone as a Blind or Low Vision Older AdultProceedings of the 26th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility10.1145/3663548.3675622(1-14)Online publication date: 27-Oct-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3663548.3675622
Baecker RGrudin J(2024)Pursue Your Career EthicallyDigital Dreams Have Become Nightmares: What We Must Do10.1145/3640479.3640493Online publication date: 15-Feb-2024
https://doi.org/10.1145/3640479.3640493
Wenhart CHassenzahl M(2024)There is an “I” in “We”: Relatedness Technologies Viewed Through the Lens of the Need for AutonomyExtended Abstracts of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613905.3650985(1-7)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3613905.3650985
Lien-Talks A(2024)The Ashwell Project: creating an online geospatial communityInternet Archaeology10.11141/ia.67.12Online publication date: May-2024
https://doi.org/10.11141/ia.67.12
Thu Nguyen K(2023)Early Reframing of Aging and Intergenerational Relations for Improved Technology Design and UsageIntergenerational Relations - Contemporary Theories, Studies and Policies10.5772/intechopen.1002316Online publication date: 13-Oct-2023
https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.1002316
Mangra A(2023)Seniors and the Use of New Technologies: Loneliness and Support NetworksCulture. Society. Economy. Politics10.2478/csep-2023-00033:1(37-49)Online publication date: 10-Jul-2023
https://doi.org/10.2478/csep-2023-0003
Kelly RXing YBaker SWaycott J(2023)Video Calls as a Replacement for Family Visits During Lockdowns in Aged Care: Interview Study With Family MembersJMIR Aging10.2196/409536(e40953)Online publication date: 12-Jun-2023
https://doi.org/10.2196/40953
Schuster ACotten S(2023)Examining Aspects of Digital Inclusion Among National Samples of US Older AdultsSocial Inclusion10.17645/si.v11i3.689011:3(251-270)Online publication date: 6-Sep-2023
https://doi.org/10.17645/si.v11i3.6890
Show More Cited By

View Options

Login options

Check if you have access through your login credentials or your institution to get full access on this article.

Full Access

Get this Publication

View options

PDF

View or Download as a PDF file.

eReader

View online with eReader.

Media

Figures

Other

Tables

View Table of Contents