Background: Smart Health technologies (s-Health technologies) are being developed to support people with dementia (PwD) and their informal caregivers at home, to improve care and reduce the levels of burden and stress they experience. However, although s-Health technologies have the potential to facilitate this, the factors influencing a successful implementation in this population are still unknown. Objective: The aim of this study was to review existing literature to explore the factors influencing PwD and their informal caregivers' adoption of s-Health technologies for home care. Methods: Following the Arksey and O'Malley methodology, this study is a scoping review providing a narrative description of the scientific literature on factors influencing s-Health technology adoption for PwD and their informal caregivers. A search was conducted using PubMed, the Cochrane library, the IEEE library, and Scopus. Publications screening was conducted by 2 researchers based on inclusion criteria, and full-text analysis was then conducted by 1 researcher. The included articles were thematically analyzed by 2 researchers to gain an insight into factors influencing adoption that PwD and their informal caregivers have to encounter when using s-Health technologies. Relevant information was identified and coded. Codes were later discussed between the researchers for developing and modifying them and for achieving a consensus, and the researchers organized the codes into broader themes. Results: Emerging themes were built in a way that said something specific and meaningful about the research question, creating a list of factors influencing the adoption of s-Health technologies for PwD and their informal caregivers, including attitudinal aspects, ethical issues, technology-related challenges, condition-related challenges, and identified gaps. A design framework was created as a guide for future research and innovation in the area of s-Health technologies for PwD and their informal caregivers: DemDesCon for s-Health Technologies. DemDesCon for s-Health Technologies addresses 4 domains to consider for the design and development of s-Health technologies for this population: cognitive decline domain, physical decline domain, social domain, and development domain. Conclusions: Although s-Health technologies have been used in health care scenarios, more work is needed for them to fully achieve their potential for use in dementia care. Researchers, businesses, and public governments need to collaborate to design and implement effective technology solutions for PwD and their informal caregivers, but the lack of clear design guidelines seems to be slowing the process. We believe that the DemDesCon framework will provide them with the guidance and assistance needed for creating meaningful devices for PwD home care and informal caregivers, filling a much-needed space in the present knowledge gap.

Background When designing Connected Health (CH) solutions for home care, it is vital to focus on usability and user experience to ensure that technologies are easy to use and meet users' expectations and needs. Generally, the usability and user experience tests are conducted during short-term exposure, which does not allow a true understanding of how the technology can help with the home caring tasks. Research aim We aim to investigate informal caregivers' feedback on the utility and usability of a CH monitoring platform for People with Dementia (PwD) during a period of extended use in the natural living context, and to understand how this was related to compliance patterns. Methods Informal caregiver's feedback about the CH platform, usability, and the impact of short-term versus long-term exposure were investigated through semi-structured individual interviews at the beginning and end of a 6-month deployment in the home care setting. Informal caregivers' compliance with the CH platform was analysed from their daily platform utilization during the deployment time. Results 11 informal caregivers agreed to participate. There was a change in the participants' opinions about the CH platform between the short-term and the long-term exposure feedback. Their initial impressions about what the CH platform could offer them to improve their delivery of home care for the PwD did not correspond with what they found that the CH platform could provide them following the long-term exposure. If at the beginning they saw the CH platform as a helpful tool to facilitate home care delivery and to improve their self-efficacy, after the deployment they expressed that because of the way the platform was designed it was mainly conceived for dementia research benefit and not to fulfill their caring needs. Compliance with the CH platform was quite low and similar between all participants. Conclusions Most contemporary CH studies are not conducted in real-life settings and without enough duration in time. Consequently, this is not providing accurate insights into the factual informal caregivers' interaction with these technologies and their suitability for their caring needs and support. With this study, we have recognized the importance of studying how informal caregivers' are engaging with CH for home care in their own environments and for enough duration of time. We have also highlighted that, despite the fact of applying UCD, the result may not always be satisfactory for the user. For these reasons, more longitudinal research on PwD and their informal caregivers, CH technologies adoption need to be conducted.