Information design in an aged care context views of older adults on information sharing in a care triad

The adoption of technological solutions for aged care is rapidly increasing in developed countries. New technologies facilitate the sharing of health information among the “care triad”: the elderly care recipient, their family, and care staff. In order to develop user-centered technologies for this population, we believe that it is necessary to first examine their views about the sharing of health and well-being information (HWBI). Through in-depth semi-structured interviews with 12 residents of senior care facilities, we examined the reasons why older adults choose to share or not to share their HWBI with those involved in their care. We examine how the purpose of use, functional relevance, urgency, anticipated emotional reactions, and individual attitudes to privacy and control affect their opinions about sharing. We then explore how those factors define what granularity of data, communication frequency and channel older adults find appropriate for sharing HWBI with various recipients. Based on our findings, we suggest design implications.