Climate change poses a key threat to today's societies and is caused by greenhouse gas emissions, mainly carbon dioxide emissions. Capture and Utilization of Carbon Dioxide (CCU) is a technological approach to reduce CO₂ emissions. Coincidentally, the approach also reduces the depletion of limited fossil resources by incorporating CO₂ as a raw material in the manufacture of products (e.g., plastics), thereby replacing fossil resources such as conventionally used oil. Even though some CCU products are nearing market maturity, systematic research on the acceptance of these products, especially regarding the (dis)trust in the companies that produce them, is still in its initial phase. Since a lack of trust could lead to a rejection of innovative products and technologies, the present study empirically investigates (dis)trust factors related to the acceptance of CCU plastic products. In a first step, interviews were carried out and analyzed to reveal relevant (dis)trust criteria for credibility of companies, desired information and marketing issues, and how CCU products are perceived. Afterwards, an online survey (n = 127) was conducted to identify and quantify important (dis)trust dimensions, and their connection to the acceptance of CCU products. The results showed that the participants had a slightly positive attitude toward CCU, and potential environmental, sustainability related, and economic benefits were acknowledged. In addition, potential barriers of CCU (sustainability risks, unknown risks, and health concerns) were rated rather neutrally and were thus not perceived as real barriers of CCU. When comparing companies to other institutions (e.g., research institutions, NGOs), the participants reported to trust companies least. Furthermore, four relevant trust (e.g., customer relationship) and distrust (e.g., bad customer orientation) dimensions were identified using CCU companies as an example of companies which manufacture innovative products. Finally, some first insights concerning the connection between the identified trust factors, CCU perception, credibility of the information sources, and the marketing of innovative products, are presented. The results enable deriving user-specific CCU product communication and information strategies.

Ambient assisted living (AAL) technologies present one approach to counter the challenges of demographic change in terms of an aging population, rising care needs, and lacking care personnel by supporting (older) people in need of care and enabling a longer and more independent staying at own home. Although the number of studies focusing on AAL users' acceptance and perception has increased in the last years, trade-off decisions—the weighing of perceived benefits and barriers of technology usage—have not been studied so far. Nevertheless, this is of high relevance: A realistic evaluation of adoption behaviors in different stakeholders (patients, care personnel) requires an understanding of exactly the weighing process of benefits against the barriers in line with the decision of the final willingness to use AAL technology. The current study applied a conjoint analysis approach and investigates people's decision behavior to use an AAL system for a family member in need of care. Study participants (n = 140) had to decide between realistic care scenarios consisting of different options of two benefits (increase in safety, relief of caring burden of relatives) and two barriers (access to personal data and data handling) of technology usage. Results revealed data access and privacy to be most relevant for the decision to use AAL technology at home. However, care experience essentially influenced the decision patterns. For the care experienced group, data access should be limited to most trusted persons and close relatives, rather than to medical professionals. The most important reasons to use AAL are the emotional relief and the felt safety for the person in care. For care novices, in contrast, data access should be in the exclusive responsibility of medical professionals. The reasons that militate in favor of using AAL technology are the increase in process efficiency and medical safety. The results are useful to develop user-tailored technology concepts and derive user-specific communication guidelines within and across clinical and home care contexts.

Journal of Medical Internet Research - International Scientific Journal for Medical Research, Information and Communication on the Internet #Preprint #PeerReviewMe: Warning: This is a unreviewed preprint. Readers are warned that the document has not been peer-reviewed by expert/patient reviewers or an academic editor, may contain misleading claims, and is likely to undergo changes before final publication, if accepted, or may have been rejected/withdrawn. Readers with interest and expertise are encouraged to sign up as peer-reviewer, if the paper is within an open peer-review period. Please cite this preprint only for review purposes or for grant applications and CVs (if you are the author). Background: Given the fact of an aging society, new supply measures and living concepts are needed, especially as health impairments along with care dependency increase with age. As many elderly people wish to stay at home for as long as possible, ambient assisted living (AAL) represents a support for aging in place. Objective: AAL combines medical and care technology within living environments and is therefore a promising approach to cope with demographic change in terms of fast-growing care needs and fewer skilled workers. Ultrasonic whistles represent one innovative technical possibility for such supportive housing solutions. Central fields of application are home automation, emergency service, and positioning. As AAL technologies affect sensitive areas of life, it is of great interest under which conditions they are accepted or rejected taking individual user requirements into account. Methods: In this study, we examined the acceptance of ultrasonic whistles in home care by function and room using an online questionnaire. Besides an evaluation of the overall usefulness, we focused on the intention to use ultrasonic whistles, n = 270 participants assessed home automation, emergency service, and positioning as specific functions of ultrasonic whistles. Further, bathroom, bedroom, and living room were evaluated as specific usage locations (rooms). With regard to the user’s perspective, the focus was set on age and attitudes towards aging of care receivers. Results: The study revealed a significant influence of function (F(1.967,529.167) = 60.444; P < .001), room (F(1.731,465.739) = 41.388; P < .001), and the interaction of function and room (F(3.051,831.303) = 8.701; P < .001) on the acceptance of ultrasonic whistles: the use of emergency services within the bathroom represented the most accepted alternative, whereas positioning within the living room received the comparably lowest evaluations. While user diversity played overall a minor role for acceptance, the assessment of single applications differed among user groups, particularly with regard to age differences (F(20,500) = 1.988; P = .007 < .01) in the evaluation of specific installation options, such as automated doors. Conclusions: The study revealed profound insights into the user-centered assessment of ultrasonic whistles in home care and discovered function and room as influencing acceptance parameters. Concerning user characteristics, age and attitude towards aging partly affected these evaluations forming the basis for and showing the importance of further investigations in this context. Clinical Trial: Does not apply

Background: Demographic change represents enormous burdens for the care sectors, resulting in high proportions of (older) people in need of care and a lack of care staff. Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) technologies have the potential to support the bottlenecks in care supply but are not yet in widespread use in professional care contexts. Objective: The objective of our study was to investigate professional caregivers’ AAL technology acceptance and their perception regarding specific technologies, data handling, perceived benefits, and barriers. In particular, this study focuses on the perspectives on AAL technologies differing between care professionals working in diverse care contexts to examine the extent to which the care context influences the acceptance of assistive technologies. Methods: A Web-based survey (N=170) was carried out focusing on professional caregivers including medical, geriatric, and disabled people’s caregivers. Based on a scenario, the participants were asked for their perceptions concerning specific technologies, specific types of gathered data, and potential benefits of and barriers to AAL technology usage. Results: The care context significantly impacted the evaluations of AAL technologies (F14,220=2.514; P=.002). Professional caregivers of disabled people had a significantly more critical attitude toward AAL technologies than medical and geriatric caregivers, indicated (1) by being the only caregiver group that rejected evaluations of AAL technology acceptance (F2,118=4.570; P=.01) and specific technologies (F2,118=11.727; P<.001) applied for gathering data and (2) by the comparatively lowest agreements referring to the evaluations of data types (F2,118=4.073, P=.02) that are allowed to be gathered. Conclusions: AAL technology acceptance is critical because of technology implementation reasons, especially in the care of people with disabilities. AAL technologies in care contexts have to be tailored to care professional’s needs and concerns (“care about us”). The results contribute to a broader understanding of professional caregivers’ needs referring to specific data and technology configurations and enclose major differences concerning diverse care contexts. Integrating these findings into user group-tailored technology concepts and communication strategies will support a sustainable adoption of AAL systems in professional care contexts.

Increasing numbers of older individuals in the societies pose great challenges for countries affected by the demographic change. The rapid development in the technological sector, on the other hand, enables various applications to make everyday life easier for older and disabled people and to maintain their autonomy for longer. This study examines the acceptance and privacy perceptions of a video-based technology for lifelogging in home environments among German and Turkish users, using a multi-method empirical research approach. Results expose an overall differing acceptance of using lifelogging cameras between German and Turkish participants and suggest that the consideration of the varying culture-bound demands is necessary. The findings of this study support the understanding of requirements for a successful implementation of a video-based assistive technology in private environments to optimally address the needs of the future users, drawing attention to the important cultural influences that affect its acceptance.