Exploring Trust Perceptions in the Medical Context: A Qualitative Approach to Outlining Determinants of Trust in AAL Technology

Due to a demographic change of the society, health care worker shortage and rising co- and multimorbidity within older adults, constant care at home and at care facilities face a difficult task to combat these challenges. Medical AAL technology offers many opportunities to relieve health care workers and assist older adults with difficulties in managing activities of daily life (ADL). This study has adopted an exploratory interview method to explore the users’ perceptions of trust in the medical context and specifically, related to medical AAL technologies. Eleven participants ranging from 20 years to 87 years old (M = 52.27; SD = 24.2) were interviewed and, in line with previous results in the literature, results revealed three categories of influences, namely user factors, technology factors, and context factors. This implies a network of trust dependent on various external and internal influences. These findings have practical implications for clinicians, developers, policy makers and legal professionals.