Abstract / Summary
Background Digital health technologies provide new opportunities to support healthy ageing. However, older adults differ in their needs, capabilities, and preferences for digital care services. Existing research has mainly focused on technology adoption, while less attention has been paid to the structure of smart care demand service design and its variation across older adults. Objective This study aims to examine how older adults’ individual characteristics are associated with hierarchical perceived smart care demand and to explore its implications for demand-oriented service design. Methods A cross-sectional online survey was conducted among community-dwelling older adults aged 60 years and above in Zhejiang Province, China (N = 181). The hierarchical structure of smart care demand (including existence demand, satisfaction demand, and growth demand) was examined using confirmatory factor analysis, and associations between individual characteristics and three demand dimensions were analyzed using regression models. Results The Existence-Satisfaction-Growth model demonstrated acceptable construct validity and internal consistency. Individual characteristics showed dimension-specific associations with smart care demand. Growth demand showed stronger associations with age, gender, and education, whereas existence and satisfaction demands demonstrated weaker overall model effects. Conclusion Smart care demand showed a hierarchical structure with variation across individual characteristics. These findings provide preliminary evidence for understanding demand heterogeneity and informing more personalized and demand-oriented smart care service design.