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BACKGROUND: Older adults experiencing disabilities such as loss of autonomy face the decision of whether to stay at home or move to a healthcare facility such as a nursing home. Thus, they may need support for this difficult decision.

OBJECTIVE: We assessed Canadian older adults' intention to use an electronic decision aid (eDA) for making housing decisions and identified the factors that influenced their intention.

METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional study using an online survey targeting older adults across the 10 Canadian provinces and 3 territories. We included respondents from an online panel who were aged 65 years or older, understood English or French, had access to an electronic device with an internet connection and had made a housing decision over the past few months or were planning to make a decision in the coming year. We based the online survey on the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT). We adapted 17 UTAUT items to measure respondents' intention to use the eDA for housing decisions, as well as items measuring 4 intention constructs (performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence and facilitating conditions). We also assessed e-Health literacy using subjective and objective scales. We used descriptive statistics and multivariable linear regression analyses to identify factors influencing the intention to use the eDA.

RESULTS: Of the 11,972 eligible panellists, 1,176 met the eligibility criteria and 1,000 (85%) respondents completed the survey. The mean age was 72.5 ± 5.59 years. Most respondents were male (54.8%), white (90.6%), English-speakers (62.9%) and living in Ontario or Quebec (62.8%) in urban areas (85%). Mean scores for subjective e-Health literacy were 27.8 ± 5.88 out of 40 and for objective e-Health literacy, 3.00 ± 0.97 out of 5. In our sample, the intention score was 4.74 ± 1.7 out of 7. Mean scores of intention constructs out of 7 were 5.63 ± 1.28 for facilitating conditions, 4.94 ± 1.48 for performance expectancy, 5.61 ± 1.35 for effort expectancy and 4.76 ± 1.59 for social influence. In the final model, factors associated with intention included mother tongue (β = .30; P <.001), objective e-Health literacy (β = -.06; P =.03), performance expectancy (β = .55; P <.001), social influence (β = .37; P <.001) and facilitating conditions (β = .15; P <.001).

CONCLUSIONS: Findings from this pan-Canadian online survey suggest that Canadian older adults' intention to use an eDA to make housing decisions are similar to findings in other studies using UTAUT. Factors identified as influencing intention were mother tongue, objective e-Health literacy, performance expectancy, social influence and facilitating conditions. These will guide future strategies for implementing the eDA.