What do seniors worry about?
Written by: Richard Caro. Posted: February 28, 2014.
Our mission is to find ways to improve the quality of life of people as they age, and help their families and loved ones worry about them less. We felt the right place to start was getting a better understanding of what bothers seniors about aging, and what they worry about. This article shares some of what we have learned thus far from our interviews.
We have recently been talking to lots of seniors, and their families, to better understand where there might be opportunities to create new products or services that can improve the quality of life of us all as we age. Some themes emerge. The presentation below describes some of those themes extracted from some survey work we have been doing of adults in the 70+ age range in the USA.
The Tag cloud on left shows the top "themes" that surfaced when we asked "What worries you most about aging?"
At present, our co-creation community is brainstorming about what "topics" we should be focusing on for our co-creation efforts. Hopefully, the material in the slides below will give you some ideas. You can see links at the bottom of this article that will take you to pages where you can view the co-creation topics suggested thus far, and make your own suggestions for topics we should work on together.
Tech-enhanced Life survey of senior "worries"
Learn more and discuss
Discuss, Comment, Ask Questions
Last Updated: May 13, 2020.
More like this
Topic Hub
Featured Research
Medical Alert Systems: Help
We kept getting asked "which medical alert system is best?"; and "how do I choose the right medical alert system for me?". This independent, objective, hands-on research tries to answer those questions. If you are looking for a medical alert system, either for yourself or for an older adult such as a parent, this piece of research is for you.
Choose the Right Medical Alert System for YOU
Useful Apps Club
Unlock the potential of your smartphone or tablet to improve your life. The Useful Apps Club is for older adults and Boomers who have a smartphone or tablet (or are thinking of getting one) and need help to turn it into a useful tool. We are focused on finding Apps that can change your life, and teaching you how to use them.
Reduce Fall Risk
Read the "best of the web" on: Avoiding Falling. Our team of clinicians and citizen analysts has scoured the web for the best available answers to a set of questions designed to help you make falling less likely, and make the consequences if you do fall less bad.
View: Avoid the Perils of Falling
Avoid Social Isolation & Loneliness
Our community is exploring ways to avoid becoming isolated and lonely as we grow older. See what we are discovering — including one group of older adult's "recipe" for overcoming loneliness.
View: Isolation & Loneliness Hub
Medication Management Tools
Poor medication management is one of the key reasons people are forced to stop living independently. There are a wide range of tools that can help you manage your medications — and avoid, or at least postpone, that fate. We have researched which products work best for different types of people, ranging from simple inexpensive pill boxes and reminders to complex "automated" pill dispensers.
View: Medication Management Hub
Reader Comments: "What do seniors worry about?"
from podnarover@gmail.com (member) at May 29, 2014
Dave Jaffe of Stanford Engineering sent the following message after I described the iForget concept to him
>>Hi Elaine
Any wrist-worn device would have to be connected to the
cloud or a remote speech-to-text service as the conversion can
not jet be done on an isolated portable device.
There are certainly a lot of devices that serve as reminders
including voice recorders starting at $25.
But to remember many day's worth of events, there would have
to be a system of classifying the info. For example, there
might be a database of what you wore every day, another for
what you ate every day, another for what you bought recently,
etc, etc, etc, etc.
But imagine a voice system where you would generate tweets to yourself
and have your device search for a particular item by date, time, or
topic.
Another system could rely on images that you take and identify
during the day. The SenseCam is worn around the neck and
takes periodic photos as you walk around your day.
New camera promises to capture your whole life
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17992-new-camera-promises-to-capture-your-whole-life.html
Dave>>
from TiffanyAyala (unverified) at December 29, 2017
Wow
from Jim Bedient owner Age In Place Home Safety Consultant LLC (unverified) at March 23, 2022
I would like to use the Tag Cloud "What senior worry about" in a presentation that I present to seniors for my "Aging In Place Home Safety Consultant LLC" work activities. I would also like to use the tag cloud on my Google My Business site. I have prominently noted that the source is "Tech-enhanced Life" website. Thank you, Jim Bedient subscriber to your latest series of bi-weekly presentations.
from Wendl Kornfeld (unverified) at April 01, 2022
I work mostly with senior solo agers and their biggest concerns are a) having no one trustworthy/available to act as their Power of Attorney and/or Health Care Proxy, b) that there will be no one who really cares what happens to them if and when they need critical help navigating later years.
from Tybet (unverified) at May 11, 2022
I have exactly the same issues. I hope someone can provide suggestions.
from Laura Robichek (unverified) at April 10, 2022
My biggest worry is how to find somebody both trustworthy and caring (and hopefully also affordable) who will take care of me when I am no longer able to take care of myself.
from John Peter Aigner (member) at May 23, 2022
Laura:
Laura I am an 84 year old male with similar issues. My approach has been to find people to act as associates, or part-time assistance for the time being. That way I will find Helpers who may in the future be able to take on a greater role. Also I am planning to start a longevity Circle in the area in which I live, in order to explore these issues further. Hope this is helpful. John Aigner