Elderly and Digital Health Technologies: The Relationship Between Gerontechnology and Design for Active and Healthy Ageing

The proliferation of new interactive, digital and connected objects is bringing about significant transformations in our world, generating new ways of living and new channels of access to communication. The healthcare sector is one of the sectors most affected by this digital revolution. Gerontechnology, a relatively recent field of research, studies the interaction between increasing longevity and the development of emerging health technologies. Therefore, from a theoretical point of view, digital health technologies can support successful ageing, but in practice, the results fall short of the expectations of elderly users, as the elderly population is less able to access new technologies and is less open to innovation. In order to limit the Grey Digital Divide, in recent years, the design of gerontechnologies has been influenced by the anthropocentric approach, a design approach that places older adults within the design process by considering them as a social resource. In this article, the authors introduce the first results of the research project “Age-It Ageing well in an ageing society”, a project funded under the National Recovery and Resilence Plan.