Views of Swedish Elder Care Personnel on Ongoing Digital Transformation: Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Background Swedish municipalities are facing demographic challenges due to the growing number of older people and the resulting increased need for health care services. Welfare technologies are being launched as possible solutions for meeting some of these challenges. Objective The aim of this study was to explore the perception, experimentation, evaluation, and procurement of welfare technology practices among professionals working in municipal elder care in relation to their gender, age, and profession. Methods Data for this explorative cross-sectional study were collected from 393 responses to a web-based survey on municipal elder care in Sweden. Chi square tests were performed to determine the associations. Results The results revealed gender, age, and professional differences in perspectives of municipal elder care workers. Differences were particularly evident in attitudes toward technology, both the use of technology in general and in the workplace, and involvement and participation in decision making regarding the procurement of new welfare technologies. Men (37/53, 70%) expressed a more positive attitude toward and curiosity regarding new technologies than women (157/336, 46.7%) (P=.03). Regarding age, the younger respondents (18-24 years old) perceived the digital transformation in the workplace as “too slow” (4/4, 100%), whereas the majority of older respondents (65-74 years old) perceived it as happening at the “right pace” (4/7, 57%). The elder care personnel felt encouraged by management to explore and experiment with new welfare technologies, but never did so either for management or with patients. Even though the majority of the respondents were women, more men (4/7, 57%) were involved in the procurement process for welfare technology devices and solutions than women (98/336, 29.2%) (P<.001). Conclusions Personnel working within municipal elder care were generally very positive toward new technologies. However, both gender and age differences may influence these perspectives such as the personnel’s resistance to welfare technology and patients’ participation in welfare technology usage and deployment. Different levels of participation in the decision-making process regarding new technology deployment may negatively affect the overall digital transformation within municipal elder care.