Tablets for deeply disadvantaged older adults: Challenges in long-term care facilities

Abstract There is a gap in the literature regarding the effects of ICT interventions on socially disadvantaged older adults that live below the poverty line and are institutionalized in long-term care facilities. Research suggests that technology might lead to a slowdown in cognitive deterioration, and could create opportunities for social connectedness, helping alleviate social loneliness and low self-esteem. This paper describes the experience and results of the implementation of a one laptop per elderly plan (Ibirapita Plan) in a public geriatric hospital, within a highly vulnerable population, consisting of patients with dementia and low educational attainment, who are in general abandoned by their families, highly dependent, with many years of residency at the hospital and no previous usage of technology. We are the first to study the impact of a program of this kind directed to such a deeply disadvantaged population. We assess the effects on patients’ cognitive deterioration, loneliness and self-esteem. Results suggest no significant effects of the tablets intervention on these variables. Our findings are important in the avoidance of techno-optimism among policy makers and the understanding of mechanisms that may prevent positive results from ICT programs for the elderly.

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