Joseph F. Coughlin

Older Adult Perceptions of Smart Home Technologies: Implications for Research, Policy & Market Innovations in Healthcare

Advances in information communications technology and related computational power are providing a wide array of systems and related services that form the basis of smart home technologies to support the health, safety and independence of older adults. While these technologies offer significant benefits to older people and their families, they are also transforming older adults into lead adopters of a new 24/7 lifestyle of being monitored, managed, and, at times, motivated, to maintain their health and wellness. To better understand older adult perceptions of smart home technologies and to inform future research a workshop and focus group was conducted with 30 leaders in aging advocacy and aging services from 10 northeastern states. Participants expressed support of technological advance along with a variety of concerns that included usability, reliability, trust, privacy, stigma, accessibility and affordability. Participants also observed that there is a virtual absence of a comprehensive market and policy environment to support either the consumer or the diffusion of these technologies. Implications for research, policy and market innovation are discussed.

Using self-reported data to assess the validity of driving simulation data

In this article, we use self-reported driving behaviors from a written questionnaire to assess the measurement validity of data derived from a driving simulation. The issue of validity concerns the extent to which measures from the experimental context map onto constructs of interest. Following a description of the experimental methods and setting, an argument for the face validity of the data is advanced. Convergent validity was assessed by regressing behaviors observed in the driving simulator on self-reported measures of driving behaviors. Significant relationships were found across six measures: accidents, speeding, velocity, passing, weaving between traffic, and behavior at stop signs. Concurrent validity was evaluated with an analysis of simulator accident involvement and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder status. Discriminant validity was assessed using a multitrait-multimethod matrix of simulator and questionnaire data. We concluded that although the relationship between self-reported behaviors and observed responses in the simulator falls short of perfect correspondence, the data collected from the driving simulator are valid measures of the behaviors of interest.

Old Age, New Technology, and Future Innovations in Disease Management and Home Health Care

The nation’s nearly 80 million baby boomers are about to enter their peak years of chronic disease and are set to become an unprecedented driver of health care costs. New technology, however, promises to enable a transformation in the delivery of care, putting patients at the center of care systems that engage and empower them and their families, directly connecting patients to care-givers, and personalizing services in response to patients’ unique needs, preferences, and values. Such care systems also offer the promise of strengthening an understaffed, underresourced home health care industry. Leveraging technology, disease management (DM), and home health have the opportunity to work together to more efficiently and effectively meet the needs of a rapidly aging society through better coordinated care that reduces avoidable hospital readmissions and other adverse events. This is achieved by positively affecting such things as home safety (e.g., falls), medication adherence, nutrition, and heart failure.

Monitoring, managing, and motivating driver safety and well-being

The AwareCar platform uses ambient intelligence concepts and pervasive computing technologies to detect driver state (stress, fatigue, inattention), display this information to the driver, and supp...The AwareCar platform uses ambient intelligence concepts and pervasive computing technologies to detect driver state (stress, fatigue, inattention), display this information to the driver, and support in-vehicle systems to improve driver performance and safety.

Longevity, Lifestyle, and Anticipating the New Demands of Aging on the Transportation System

The baby boomers, 77 million people born between 1946 and 1964, are the single largest generation in American history. They have changed the face of the United States while placing new demands on the transportation sector. Today, Americas “youth generation” is aging. Although older driver safety is a perennial issue, this article does not address this topic; instead, the focus is on the following: Who are the baby boomers, how are they different from previous generations of older people, and what difference does it make for transportation? What will they be doing in old age? Where will they live, and how will they get around? What role might new technologies play in their mobility? What does their retirement mean for the transportation workforce in both government and industry? This article identifies key transportation research questions, policy issues, and practical implications associated with an aging America.

A laboratory driving simulation for assessment of driving behavior in adults with ADHD: a controlled study

BackgroundIt is now estimated that attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) afflicts at least 4% of adults in the United States and is associated with high levels of morbidity and functional impairment. One key area of dysfunction associated with ADHD is impaired motor vehicle operation. Our goal was to examine the association between ADHD and specific driving outcomes in a sample of adults using a driving simulator.MethodsSubjects were 20 adults with full DSM-IV ADHD and 21 controls without ADHD of equal gender distribution. However, the mean age of subjects with ADHD was somewhat older. All analyses were adjusted for age and gender. All subjects participated in a driving simulation that lasted for one hour and consisted of a short training period, a high stimulus segment and a low stimulus segment with two distinct monotonous periods.ResultsIn the second monotonous period within the low stimulus environment, ADHD subjects were significantly more likely than controls to collide with an obstacle suddenly appearing from the periphery, adjusting for age and gender.ConclusionAdults with ADHD were more likely than controls to collide with an obstacle during a driving simulation suggesting that deficits in directed attention may underlie driving impairments in this population.

Innovations in health, wellness, and aging-in-place

This paper discusses innovations for older people in health and in wellness. This article presents the opportunity for intelligent technologies in the home, identifies todays apparent innovation gap indicated by the slow diffusion of existing smart technologies, and describes an integrated consumer-centric approach that may offer promise in translating inventions into innovations in peoples lives across the lifespan.

Family Matter: Older Drivers and the Driving Decision

Decisions about limiting or stopping driving are among the most difficult that older adults face. There is little research related to this decision making of older drivers, family members, and other trusted individuals who contribute to the decision. To report on the preferences that older drivers have for conversations with others with concerns about their driving, this paper draws on a series of focus groups and a U.S. survey of drivers age 50 and older. A majority of survey respondents indicated that they engaged in some degree of voluntary self-regulation of their driving. People generally preferred to be approached by individual family members as opposed to those outside the family for conversations about their driving. In terms of preferences for who should speak with the older driver, differences emerged on the basis of household status. Most older adults who were married preferred to hear first from a spouse, although the choice was not universal. Doctors and adult children were also preferred choices for conversations. The paper concludes with a discussion of pragmatic implications of the research for conducting conversations with older adults about concerns with their driving.