ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Aging and Public Health
This article is part of the Research TopicUser-Centred Approaches for Designing Assistive Technologies to Support Older AdultsView all 7 articles
A Study on the Relationship Between Technological Affordance of Age-Appropriate Smart Wearable Devices and the Well-Being of Older Adults
Provisionally accepted
- 1青岛理工大学, 山东青岛, China
- 2Beijing University of Technology, 青岛理工大学, 山东青岛, China
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Global population aging is intensifying, posing significant challenges to care for older adults. In this context, age-appropriate smart wearable devices, with their capabilities for efficient physiological monitoring, disease prevention, and safety protection, play an important role in supporting the health and independence of older adults. However, the relationship between the technological affordance of these devices and the well-being of older adults has not been fully explored. In this study, an integrated theoretical model was constructed based on Technological Affordance Theory (TAT), Self-Determination Theory (SDT), Stimulus-Organism-Response (SOR) theory, and Socioemotional Selectivity Theory (SST). Data from 233 older adults using age-appropriate smart wearable devices were collected through a questionnaire, and structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to analyze the data. The results indicate that the visibility (β = 0.155-0.238, p < 0.05), interactivity (β = 0.155-0.304, p < 0.05), and directiveness (β = 0.292-0.395, p < 0.001) of age-appropriate smart wearable devices are significantly and positively correlated with older adults' sense of autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Furthermore, these psychological needs are significantly and positively correlated with their overall well-being (β = 0.184-0.352, p < 0.01). Sense of autonomy, competence, and relatedness significantly mediated the relationship between technological affordance and older adults' well-being (indirect effects = 0.034-0.139, 95% confidence interval [CI] excluding 0). This study reveals that technological affordance is indirectly positively correlated with the well-being of older adults via their psychological needs, offering practical insights for the design and development of age-appropriate smart wearable devices.
Keywords: age-appropriate wearable electronic devices, Aged, technological affordance theory, Psychological Needs, Well-being
Received: 31 Jul 2025; Accepted: 28 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhang, Yang and Lin. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Shusheng Yang, yangshusheng@qut.edu.cn
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