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 9 articles
Understanding Older People's Intentions to Use Smart Elderly Care Applications in China: An Extension of the UTAUT2 Model
Provisionally accepted
BEI LIU*
Normalini Md Kassim*- School of Mathematical Sciences, University of Science Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia
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Abstract. This study investigates the factors influencing the intention to use (IU) smart elderly care applications in China by extending the UTAUT2 model with additional variables, including attitude, perceived risk dimensions, intergenerational support, and technology anxiety. A total of 477 (after quality screening, 375 remained for analysis) Chinese adults aged 60 and above participated in an online survey, and data were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM). The results indicate that attitude, perceived trust, and life satisfaction are significant predictors of IU, while technology anxiety exerts a notable moderating effect. By extending the UTAUT2 framework and offering deeper insights into the key variables affecting the adoption of smart elderly care applications in China, this study contributes to the existing literature. These findings have important implications for stakeholders, including application designers, researchers, and government agencies.
Keywords: Intergenerational support, Smart elderly care, technological anxiety, Technology acceptance intention, UTAUT2
Received: 27 Sep 2025; Accepted: 08 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 LIU and Kassim. 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:
BEI LIU
Normalini Md Kassim
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