Understanding Requirements
The resources in this section have been selected to support researchers, designers and developers build an understanding of the wider background and context to the concept of healthy ageing and wellbeing for older adults in the UK.
1.1 Ageing Society
Understanding the requirements of older adults starts with a full understanding of the current societal impacts of the curent population shift within UK communities and the ways in which this is affecting individuals in a wide variety of demographic groups.
Chief Medical Officer's Annual Report 2023:
Health in an Ageing Society
Centre for Ageing Better:
State of ageing 2023
Centre for Ageing Better:
State of ageing inforgraphics
Government Office for Science:
Future of an ageing population
Voices of our ageing population: Living longer lives
from the Office for National Statistics
Why does population ageing matter and what do the Census 2021 data tell us? This article was compiled in partnership with Age UK, the Centre for Ageing Better and the International Longevity Centre UK
Accessible Human-Robot Design
Professor Praminda Caleb-Solly, University of Nottingham
Online Conference on Robotics for Healthy Ageing
Seminar 3: Addressing physical barriers
1st April 2025
An Introduction to Healthy Ageing
Shirley Hall, Star and Garter
CHART Summer School: Connecting Assistive Solutions to Aspirations
4th September 2024
1.2 Healthy ageing and wellbeing
A broad understanding of the challenges and opportunities associated with healthy ageing and wellbeing will foster an appreciation for the multi-faceted issues to be taken into consdieration when research, designing and developing technologies for use by older adults.
Age UK:
Healthy Ageing Evidence Review
UKRI Healthy Ageing Challenge:
Adding Life to Years
The Health Foundation:
Our ageing population
British Geriatrics Society:
Measurements of Healthy Ageing
Age UK - Understanding frailty
‘Frailty’ is a term that’s used a lot, but is often misunderstood. When used properly, it refers to a person’s mental and physical resilience, or their ability to bounce back and recover from events like illness and injury.
Frailty: An Overview
Ebrahim Mulla, Ursula Montgomery
Published February 2020
Opportunities and Challenges in Care of Older People
Professor Adam Gordon, President, British Geriatrics Society
Network Event: Tackling Challenges in Getting Robots out of the Lab and into the Real World
20th February 2024
1.3 Tackling ageism
Older adults are often subject to a harmful level of age discrimination when unconscious bias and steroetypical thinking leads to incorrect assumptions about abilities and strengths. Understanding ageism, it's effects on older adults and how we can address this is vital when researching, designing and developing technologies to be deployed for use by older adults.
Centre for Ageing Better:
Doddery but dear?
Centre for Ageing Better:
Ageism: What's the harm?
Age without limits:
Ageism: Key facts and stats
Centre for Ageing Better:
Exploring representations of old age and ageing
Policy position paper: Ageism and Age Equality
Everyone should live with dignity and respect. Older people are equal members of society and should not be subjected to ageist attitudes, stereotyping or age discrimination.
Age-friendly communication principles
Want to learn more about challenging ageism? Watch this video about Age-friendly communications principles from the Centre for Ageing Better.
Challenging ageism: A guide to talking about ageing and older age
This guide is designed as a practical tool to support organisations in communicating about ageing and older age.
Ageism and Psychological Well-Being Among Older Adults: A Systematic Review
Hyun Kang & Hansol Kim
Published 1 April 2022
Digital Ageism: Challenges and Opportunities in Artificial Intelligence for Older Adults
Charlene H Chu, Rune Nyrup, Kathleen Leslie, Jiamin Shi, Andria Bianchi, Alexandra Lyn, Molly McNicholl, Shehroz Khan, Samira Rahimi & Amanda Grenier
Published 07 September 2022
Ageism, Healthy Life Expectancy and Population Ageing: How are they related?
Alana Officer, Jotheeswaran Amuthavalli Thiyagarajan, Mira Leonie Schneiders, Paul Nash & Vânia de la Fuente-Núñez
Published 01 May 2020
1.4 Perspectives of older adults: Health and Social Care
When we are working to address gaps in the provision of care for older adults, it is important that we understand the impact that current approaches to health and social care are having for this demoraphic and their views and opinions need to be taken in to account.
Age UK:
Why can't I get care?
Age UK:
It's a struggle to be seen
Age UK:
I just feel that no one cares
Age UK:
We have to take it one day at a time
Older people living in care homes in 2021
Characteristics of the population aged 65 years and over living in a care home in 2021 including health, disability, ethnicity, and main language, and changes since 2011.
Unmet care needs of older people: A scoping review
Dominika Kalánková, & Minna Stolt
Published 01 October 2020
1.5 Perspectives of older adults: Environment
Older adults are living with a diverse range of environments within the UK. Understanding this diversity and the realities of living in these environments will ensure that technologies developed for older adults will be suitable for the spaces in which this demographic spend their time. It is important that technologies are developed and tested within realistic settings which more accurately mimic the ral-world secnarios to which they wll be deployed.
Centre for Ageing Better:
Locked out: A new perspetive on older people's housing choices
Centre for Ageing Better:
Finding the right place to grow older
Safe homes now:
Older people in poor-quality housing
Ministry of housing, communities and local government:
What older people want
Building for an ageing population
Over 90% of older people live in general mainstream homes and the quality of their housing is central to their experience of ageing
‘It’s where I belong’: what does it mean to age in place from the perspective of people aged 80 and above? A longitudinal qualitative study (wave one)
Kate Gibson, Katie Brittain, Emma McLellan, Andrew Kingston, Heather Wilkinson & Louise Robinson
Published 17 June 2024
Middle aged and older adult’s perspectives of their own home environment: a review of qualitative studies and meta-synthesis
Roslyn Aclan, Stacey George, Heather Block, Rachel Lane & Kate Laver
Published 31 October 2023
How Can the Lived Environment Support Healthy Ageing? A Spatial Indicators Framework for the Assessment of Age-Friendly Communities
Melanie Davern, Rachel Winterton, Kathleen Brasher & Geoff Woolcock
Published 21 October 2020
1.6 Perspectives of older adults: Technology
These resources explore what older adults want from technology, their attitudes toward emerging technologies and the barriers and facilitators to the adoption of assistive technologies in to practice.
Age UK Briefing:
Facts and figures about digital inclusion and older people
Independent Age:
Older people, technology and community
Age UK:
Offline and Overlooked
Inequities in access to assistive technology: a call for action
Luc de Witte, Rosalie van der Vaart
Published January 2025
Older people’s attitudes towards emerging technologies: A systematic literature review
Mengxi Zhang
Published 19 May 2023
Understanding Older Adults’ Experiences With Technologies for Health Self-management: Interview Study
Elsy Paola Garcia Reyes, Ryan Kelly, George Buchanan & Jenny Waycott
Published 21 Mar 2023
Older Adults and Smart Technology: Facilitators and Barriers to Use
Maurita T. Harris, Kenneth A. Blocker & Wendy A. Rogers
Published 04 May 2022
Older adults' perspectives of smart home technology: Are we developing the technology that older people want?
Abir Ghorayeb, Rob Comber & Rachael Gooberman-Hill
Published March 2021
What do Older Adults Want from Social Robots? A Qualitative Research Approach to Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) Studies
Dominika Kalánková, & Minna Stolt
Published 01 October 2020
“These devices have not been made for older people's needs” – Older adults' perceptions of digital technologies in Finland and Ireland
Jari Pirhonen, Luciana Lolich, Katariina Tuominen, Outi Jolanki & Virpi Timonen
Published August 2020
The Robotic Assistant for the Ageing: The Unbalanced Struggle between Benefits and Challenges
Dr. Elizabeth Mestheneos, 50+Hellas (Ad. Council)
EMERGENCE Healthcare Technologies Network+ Robotics for Frailty Challenge
28th September 2022
Technology for our Ageing Population: Panel for Innovation
From principles to practice (and the barriers to innovation in the public service domain)
From principles to practice (and the barriers to innovation in the public service domain)
Professor Roy Sandbach, Newcastle University
12th September 2023
1.7 Guidance and Tools
Design Age Institute:
Design Age Ideas
Centre for Ageing Better: Case studies and stories
Read all the latest case studies and personal stories from the Centre for Ageing Better. Find out more about examples of good practice and people's experiences of growing older.
Age-positive image library
Photos in the image library, which depict older people in non-stereotypical ways, are available to download for free.
EMERGENCE Resource: Let's talk about people-centred robotics
A resource created by the EMERGENCE network to support the understanding of requirements of older adults in relation to assistive technologies to support frailty and healthy ageing.
Introduction to empathy cards
Aisha Gul, Cardiff University
Online Conference on Robotics for Healthy Ageing
Seminar 1: Evaluation of existing robotic technology solutions
Seminar 1: Evaluation of existing robotic technology solutions
1st April 2025
Reflections from EMERGENCE: Accessibility
Professor Praminda Caleb-Solly, University of Nottingham