Technology and longevity

Throughout this blog, we will contribute to give visibility to all those technologies that, directly or indirectly, actively contribute to improving the way of ageing by bringing closer and facilitating tools for the population aged 65 and over. And the fact is that ageing in an active and healthy way not only has to do with maintaining good physical and mental health, but also with all the possibilities offered by technology for a demographic sector with increasing demands, sometimes directed by a specific need, such as health, and others, by leisure and entertainment.

How can we connect these two concepts? Throughout history, and especially since the 20th and 21st centuries, we have witnessed two revolutions, the first, the increase in the longevity of the population, and the second, the technological revolution, which we are witnessing on a daily basis and which is accelerating every day. Bringing the latter closer to the population over 65 is a challenge, where not only large corporations, but also the most innovative ones, are betting on creative solutions. And artificial intelligence (AI) is playing a key role in the evolution of these tools, which are becoming increasingly intelligent and easy to use.

According to the Programme for a Long-lived Society (PSL) "[...] the last 20th century marked the beginning of one of the most transformative phenomena in our personal and social environment: the so-called longevity revolution. Since 1950, life expectancy has only increased. [...] This trend, far from diminishing, will only increase in the coming years, with the world's average age expected to rise by a further 10 years by 2050."¹

Below is the graph that reflects the trend and shows the figures of how the population pyramid is inverting. The trend is now towards more people aged 65 and over. And although the pyramid represents a study corresponding to Spain, we can extrapolate this to the rest of the countries in the world, and this is a phenomenon that is becoming more and more accentuated.

Figure 1. The inversion of the population pyramid. Source: INE. 

What impact does this trend have on technology? As we explained at the beginning, these two revolutions are interrelated and this is demonstrated by the study carried out by CENIE and CRAFT 2019, entitled "In the shoes of Spaniards aged +65"². The study reflects the new demographic reality in which the so-called "silver" generation is increasingly familiar with new technologies and, in addition, a large proportion of them use new technologies for leisure.

We have always thought that the population aged 65 and over had certain socio-demographic characteristics, but nothing could be further from the truth. The study's figures show that technology consumption habits are becoming more and more widespread and respond to the search for entertainment, among many other healthy habits such as social activities, interest in cultural trips, etc., and this completely breaks with the stereotype of old age. 

The so-called silver economy, which refers to all products and services aimed at people over the age of 65, is a growing trend and the markets aimed at this population - which is currently booming - are, of course, committed to technology.

Figure 1. Data from the study on the use of technology. "In the shoes of Spaniards aged +65". Page 33.

Technologies for active and healthy ageing.

From smart pill dispensers to make it easier to take doses, smart robots for the home or voice assistants, to ultra-simple and quick-to-use websites that facilitate communication between family members, they make it easier for patients and older people to manage chronic ailments, day-to-day tasks or other types of tasks. The purchasing power of this segment of the population favours the market and, in turn, the most innovative minds that are committed to projects that in almost all cases focus on offering devices and/or tools to monitor the state of health and offer suggestions for daily physical activity. 

Technologies aimed at increasingly long-lived societies are increasingly present, and even the European Horizon 2020 programme (H2020 -which funds research projects- has more and more proposals aimed at promoting active ageing through technology³. The senior population is increasingly engaging in activities related to physical and mental wellbeing, such as taking care of their diet, daily physical exercise and respecting sleep time, among others; and this is key to improving quality of life. 

We must not forget that, although it is true that access to technology is increasing, there are still many socio-demographic barriers that prevent many people from accessing an adequate infrastructure that supports all the benefits of technological advances and there are rural areas where these infrastructures are almost non-existent and many households cannot access these types of services, and many social actors are trying to propose plans to improve this gap. In these areas, there is a high percentage of elderly population, and as this article shows, during the pandemic year, the internet access gap became much more plausible, with 13.4% of rural areas not having access to a connection of more than 30Mpbs (very low internet speed to support the type of content offered today through the different online platforms and services). 

According to the senior consumer observatory⁴ , more than 58% of the over-65s surveyed use online banking and 41% use social networks and, interestingly, 6% use applications to meet people. These general data already give a glimpse of the market trends and the technological profile, which is moving in a clear direction towards a greater adoption of technology in daily life. 

We hope, in the next publications and in a progressive way, to bring you closer in detail to these new existing technologies; we will talk about artificial intelligence, algorithms, machine learning, robotics, home automation, etc. whether they are at the consumer's door or in the development phase, in order to articulate a new and interesting discourse within everyone's reach. 

¹CENIE @2021, Programa para una Sociedad Longeva: Introducción.Disponible en: https://cenie.eu/es/psl/introduccion [Consulta: 26-05-2021]

²CENIE @2021, Juntos damos más vida a Zamora . Pasos previos.Disponible en: https://zamoramasvida.org/sites/default/files/En-los-zapatos-de-los-esp… [Consulta: 15-06-2021

³European Commission @2021, Health, Demographic Change and Wellbeing. Disponible en: https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020/en/h2020-section/health-dem… [Consulta: 26-05-2021]

⁴CENIE 2021 ©, Barómetro del consumidor senior, Tecnología.  Disponible en: