Abstract Information and communication technology (ICT) support for active and healthy aging (AHA) has risen in prominence over recent years with a goal of facilitating and promoting a self-sustaining lifestyle for older adults. Following a user-centered, participatory, ethnography-based approach, we established a basis for sustained long-term use of ICT for AHA support. Working with two groups of older participants in Germany (aged 61–76 at the outset) over the course of a four-year international project, we facilitated the development of social learning spaces and introduced participants to health-related technologies, exploring enablers as well as barriers to their long-term use. Findings indicate that a mutual interaction between health aspects and social factors was a vital motivator of sustained technology use and that this played a key role in the perceived usefulness of health-related devices. However, this dynamic only emerged over time. Barriers included age-related usability issues and privacy- and data security-based concerns about technology.
Ahmadi et al. (2026) studied this question.