title: Caregivers' Willingness to Pay for Technologies to Support Caregiving.
abstract: We report the results of a study designed to assess whether and how much informal caregivers are willing to pay for technologies designed to help monitor and support care recipients (CRs) in performing kitchen and personal care tasks.
  
  
  
  We carried out a web survey of a national sample of adult caregivers (age 18-64) caring for an older adult (N = 512). Respondents completed a 25min online survey that included questions about their caregiving situation, current use of everyday technology, use of specific caregiving technologies, general attitudes toward technology, and questions about technologies designed to help them monitor and provide assistance for CRs' kitchen and self-care activities.
  
  
  
  About 20% of caregivers were not willing to pay anything for kitchen and self-care technologies. Among those willing to pay something, the mean amount was approximately $50 per month for monitoring technologies and $70 per month for technologies that both monitored and provided some assistance. Younger caregivers, those caring for a person with Alzheimer's disease, and caregivers with more positive attitudes toward and experience with technology were willing to pay more. Most caregivers feel that the government or private insurance should help pay for these technologies.
  
  
  
  Caregivers are receptive and willing to pay for technologies that help them care for their CR, although the amount they are willing to pay is capped at around $70 per month. The combination of private pay and government subsidy may facilitate development and dissemination of caregiver technologies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and UCSUR, University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. schulz@pitt.edu.
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Schulz
authors.affiliation: UCSUR, University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
authors.forename: Scott R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Beach
authors.affiliation: UCSUR, University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
authors.forename: Judith T
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Matthews
authors.affiliation: School of Health and Information Sciences, University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.
authors.forename: Karen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Courtney
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing, University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
authors.forename: Annette
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: De Vito Dabbs
authors.affiliation: UCSUR, University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
authors.forename: Laurel Person
authors.initials: LP
authors.lastname: Mecca
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001290:Attitude; D017028:Caregivers; D005260:Female; D005102:Health Expenditures; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012648:Self Care; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013672:Technology / Q000191:economics*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Aging; Caregiving; Disability; Kitchen assistance; Personal care; Technology; Willingness to pay