Briefs · Frontier Science
Smartwatches Passed the Test. The Digital Divide Did Not
The watch worked. The system around it did not, not yet.
Thailand is ageing fast. One in five people was aged sixty or over in 2022. A study in Frontiers in Digital Health, published 7 April, asked whether connected devices could help them age at home.
Researchers surveyed 2,005 older adults across four provinces. Their mean age was 68.9 years. Most were women. Nearly two-thirds lived on less than 5,000 baht a month.
Then came the pilot. Eighty people used KATI smartwatches, WBP202 blood pressure monitors, and Contour Plus ELITE glucometers for six months, measuring blood pressure and glucose twice daily.
Satisfaction was high. The smartwatch scored 93.8 per cent. The blood pressure monitor scored 81.3 per cent. Technology acceptance scores all cleared 4.0 out of 5.
Yet the barriers were blunt. Fear of online fraud topped the list at 29.9 per cent. Lack of digital equipment followed at 15.8 per cent.
The verdict is therefore double-edged. The devices delight those who can use them. They risk leaving behind low-literacy, low-income, and homebound elders.
This is not a gadget story, but rather a fairness story. Affordable devices, simple interfaces, and community training are the price of progress that includes everyone.
Read the original at Frontiers in Digital Health
Summary in our own words. The original belongs to its publisher.