Sakari Taipale

Background: While telecare has considerable potential to improve home care services, benefit older adults, and support informal caregivers, its adoption remains limited. There is also a notable gap in empirical research on the factors that influence informal caregivers’ behavioral intention to use telecare. In particular, existing theoretical acceptance models are insufficiently comprehensive, as they do not specifically address informal caregivers of older adults and have largely overlooked the psychosocial outcomes of engaging with telecare. Objective: This study examined the behavioral intention of Slovenian informal caregivers of older adults to use telecare, focusing on the preuse stage of technology acceptance, by integrating the perceived psychosocial outcomes of telecare engagement (peace of mind, reduced anxiety, sense of safety, and perceived connectedness with the care recipient) into the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) model. Methods: The study applied nested ordinary least squares regression analysis to survey data collected in 2021 in Slovenia from informal caregivers of older adults, all of whom were aged 40 years or older. Of 612 respondents in the dataset, 558 were retained after excluding current or former users of care-related assistive technologies; the regression analyses were based on the 526 participants with complete data on all model variables. Results: The regression analysis used 3 nested models to examine predictors of the intention of informal caregivers of older adults to use telecare. The first model, which included only background variables (burden of care, financial coping, and caregiver sociodemographic characteristics), had limited explanatory power ( R ²=0.03), with financial coping as the only significant predictor (β=−0.14, P =.005). Adding UTAUT predictors significantly improved the model’s fit ( R ²=0.49). Performance expectancy (β=0.52, P <.001), facilitating conditions (β=0.11, P =.005), and social influence (β=0.21, P <.001) emerged as additional significant predictors. Incorporating perceived psychosocial outcomes further improved the model’s fit and increased the explained variance ( R ²=0.54); this additional factor also showed the strongest association (β=0.41, P <.001). Patterns for the other predictors remained consistent across models, but including perceived psychosocial outcomes substantially reduced the coefficient for performance expectancy. Conclusions: In this cross-sectional sample, perceived psychosocial outcomes were the predictors most strongly associated with behavioral intention in the extended UTAUT model, indicating that they may be important factors in understanding telecare acceptability among informal caregivers. The findings suggest that developers, policymakers, and health and social care providers should consider not only functional aspects of telecare but also the psychosocial needs of informal caregivers. As the study measured self-reported intention at the preuse stage rather than actual use, longitudinal and behavioral research is needed to establish whether these associations translate into telecare adoption.

Digitalization reforms have reshaped views on ideal citizenship, empha­sizing individuals as proactive consumers of digital health services. This shift has introduced opportunities, but also new demands, especially for older adults who face a heightened risk of digital exclusion. In this arti­cle, we examine older adults’ experiences with digital health services in Finland. We ask the following: (1) How do older adults experience digi­tal health services in daily life? and (2) How do older adults’ experiences with digital health services shed light on dimensions of digital citizen­ship? Based on thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews (n = 12) with older adults aged 68–80, digital engagement often unfolds along a spectrum shaped by emotional, social, and structural conditions. As a conceptual contribution, we introduce situational digital citizenship to capture the ways older adults participate selectively, under obligation, or with ambivalence while negotiating societal expectations. This per­spective highlights digital inclusion as a dynamic process, not as a fixed outcome.

The Care Work and Technology survey is part of the Center of Excellence in Research on Ageing and Care (CoE AgeCare), funded by the Academy of Finland (grant no. 312367 and 336671). In 2026, the final stages of the report was funded by Strategic Research Council, situated as part of the Academy of Finland (grant no. 372418). This unique longitudinal study, conducted between 2018 and 2025, followed the views of the same respondents on changes in care work of older people as well as the growing role of technology in care work. This report presents an up-to-date overview of care work in Finland, including the use of technology and its impacts on working conditions, work practices, and care relationships. The survey was designed in collaboration with experts from four trade unions (Tehy, SuPer, JHL and Talentia). The first survey was conducted in spring 2019, with the first follow-up survey taking place in spring 2021 and the second in spring 2024. Therefore, the study covers significant transformation, such as the crises of rising care costs, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the national social and health sector (SOTE) reform. The study sample consisted of 47 854 trade union members, 6 189 of whom responded to the 2019 survey. Of these, a total of 3 607 respondents joined the panel, with 1 726 participating in the 2021 follow-up survey and 878 in the 2024 follow-up survey. The final combined longitudinal dataset includes 800 respondents whose responses cover the entire study period. The surveys included questions about employment relationships, working hours, the nature of work, and the use of devices, applications, and systems in care work. Topics such as the intensity of technology use, video call application use, social working conditions, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the SOTE reform were added to the follow-up surveys. The questionnaire was designed based on previous studies and it was tested before implementation. The surveys were conducted online in Finnish and Swedish (only the first wave). This report summarises the key findings of the entire dataset and provides information on changes and technological developments in care work with older people. Particular attention is paid to temporal changes and sector-specific differences, such as the views of employees in intensive service housing (“TPA”) and homecare (“kotihoito”). Open-ended responses have been discussed in separate publications and theses. This report provides valuable information for researchers and societal stakeholders involved in care provision. It shows that the technologisation of care work has progressed significantly during the report period and its impacts on working conditions and care relationships are manifold. At the same time, the daily practices of care workers have been shaped by the exceptional circumstances of the pandemic and the social and healthcare reform, providing a unique overview of Finnish eldercare work.

This critical conceptual analysis explores the key challenges associated with warm experts, such as family members and friends, in providing informal digital support in later life. We examine the challenges that stem from the dyadic relationship between warm experts and older adults, as well as the individual, social and societal characteristics of being a warm expert with limited resources to provide digital support to older adults. In conclusion, while the contribution of warm experts to digital support in later life is evident, they may lack the necessary resources to meet the heterogeneous needs of older adults from an individual standpoint. From a social perspective, the primary limitation of warm experts as providers of informal support lies in the unequal distribution of the informal digital support they offer. In societal terms, we argue that warm experts should not be seen as the sole solution to the challenges posed by digital inclusion and digital inequalities related to ageing.

At around age 60, people are approaching late adulthood and are typically going through or anticipating life transitions such as grandparenthood, retirement, or changes in health and functioning. The timing and perception of transitions are individual and based on current circumstances and earlier life history and may link to well-being. The TRAILS (Developmental Psychological Perspectives on Transitions at Age 60: Individuals Navigating Across the Lifespan) study, which is presented in the current article, examines the diversity and underlying factors of different transitions at around age 60 and how they associate with mental well-being. It also investigates whether these transitions link to personality characteristics, contextual resources, and/or societal challenges. The role of earlier life history in the studied associations requires a prospective multiwave design where the same participants are followed over time. Only a few longitudinal studies have examined the developmental pathways from childhood to the beginning of late adulthood. The TRAILS study continues the Jyväskylä Longitudinal Study of Personality and Social Development (JYLS). The JYLS was initiated in 1968 and includes earlier data collected from ages 8 to 50. At age 61, in 2020–21, 206 of the JYLS participants (of the initial 369 children) took part in TRAILS. The data collection included a Life Situation Questionnaire, a psychological interview, self-report inventories, a health examination and physical activity surveillance covering major areas of adult life. TRAILS extends the JYLS study to over 52 years of follow-up time and provides unique opportunities for studying individual development throughout the lifespan.

Objective: The purpose of this study is to examine how care workers’ characteristics are related to the perceived benefits and drawbacks of using videoconferencing in the care of older people. The factors chosen for this study are: age, education, perceived information and communication technology (ICT) support, interest in technology, ICT skills and possible prior experience of using videoconferencing tools. Methods: Our data source was the second wave (2021) of the University of Jyväskylä survey on elder care work ( N = 3607), collected from four large trade unions in Finland. We used a multinomial logistic regression to group respondents according to their experiences of technology use and a path analysis to estimate the effects of care workers’ characteristics and prior experiences on the perceived benefits of videoconferencing tools in eldercare work. Results: We found that the personal characteristics of a care worker are associated with both the use of videoconferencing and its perceived benefits and drawbacks. In addition, we discovered that prior use of videoconferencing tools, especially in direct care work, affects the perceived benefits of them. Those who have used videoconferencing in direct care work perceive them as more beneficial for both their own work and for clients. Conclusions: Based on these results, we suggest that healthcare and social welfare organizations pay attention to the characteristics of care workers, especially when estimating the necessary amount of ICT support. More ICT support should be targeted to those with a lower level of education and higher age.

The aim of this study was to investigate the changes in older adults’ mobile phone use from before to during the COVID-19 pandemic. The media displacement and digital divide approaches served as the theoretical frameworks of the study. The data were drawn from the 2018 and 2020 waves of the Aging + Communication + Technology cross-national longitudinal panel study. The sample consisted of older Internet users, aged 62 to 96 (in 2018), from Austria, Canada, Finland, Israel, the Netherlands, Romania, and Spain, who participated in both waves (N = 4,398). Latent class analysis and latent transition analysis with multinomial regression models were the main methods applied to the data. With regard to the findings, three mobile phone function use profiles—Narrow Use, Medium Use, and Broad Use—were identified from the data. Lower age, being married, higher income, and place of residence (in 2018) predicted belonging to the three profiles, while country differences in the prevalence of the profiles were substantial. Between 2018 and 2020, transition from one profile to another was relatively rare but typically toward the “Broad Use” category. Profile transitions were most common in Romania, while stability was highest in Finland, Israel, and Canada. In addition, gender, age, marital status, and place of residence predicted the likelihood of changing from one profile to another between 2018 and 2020. The results suggest that older adults’ mobile phone function use is relatively stable over a two-year time span. While new mobile phone functions are adopted, they seem to augment the spectrum of mobile usage rather than displace older similar functionalities. In addition, demographic, socioeconomic, and country-level digital divides, although slightly modified over time, remain significant among older adults.

A lack of social support can hinder older adults’ digital inclusion. This chapter examines the connection between social and digital inclusion by focusing on the process of acquiring social support for digital technology use among older adults in Finland. Building on the concept of warm expert, the chapter shows that acquiring support for digital technology use is a reciprocal process that both enhances and requires digital inclusion. A qualitative analysis of 22 participant-induced elicitation interviews was conducted with older adults aged between 57 and 89. The chapter shows that social support reinforces digital inclusion by (a) ensuring older adults’ access to technology, (b) catering for their positive approach towards technology and (c) improving their skills to use technology independently. The connection between social and digital inclusion also operates the other way round. Digital inclusion is required to gain social support that is more readily at hand in a technology-mediated manner.