Explaining the Demand for Assisting Technologies in Nursing and Medical Care

Private households can use assisting technologies for the supply of specific needs like sustaining an independent living, to stay longer at home despite mental or physical impairments, and even for healthy ageing. That such needs are exists is shown in many analyses and it was concluded that an adequate demand for assisting technologies will occur. However, to date the demand for assisting technologies was not as many experts have expected.

It is still unclear, why no market has developed despite high financial support from the government, provision of a large amount of information, high potential of demand, and high purchasing power of households of older people. There are some hypotheses about the reasons behind the low demand, but what is missing is a theoretical sound systematic compilation of determinants. To date there exist no microeconomic model, which can explain not only the amount of demand but also its structure.

The aim of the paper is to systematize the central economic aspects for explaining the demand for assisting technologies which should be used in developing an explanatory model. It will be shown that in the discussion only parts of the problem were examined and relevant determinants were ignored.