Can Exoskeletons Make Older Workers More Confident? Investigating the Impact of Exoskeletons on Aging Workers’ Self-Efficacy and Perceived Work Ability

Abstract

Exoskeletons have the potential to help older workers with physical declines regain their functional capabilities and successfully meet task demands in physically demanding workplaces. This study investigated if the introduction of exoskeletons affected occupational self-efficacy and perceived work ability among manual labor workers aged 55 or older. An online survey measured changes in occupational self efficacy and perceived work ability after respondents learned about the innovative exoskeleton technology. Although it was not statistically significant, the trend showed that aging manual labor workers anticipated increased self-efficacy if exoskeletons were introduced to their workplaces. This finding suggests that exoskeletons not only help reduce injury risks and improve productivity of older workers but could also enhance their confidence at work, potentially extending their time in the workforce and improving their overall quality of life.

Background

Older workers often opt to or are forced to retire earlier due to the inability to meet job demands as they age (Wang & Shultz, 2009). In particular, age-related physical and physiological declines, such as impairment in musculoskeletal functions, may create barriers to performing laborious tasks (Wang & Shultz, 2009). This could adversely impact occupational self-efficacy (i.e., one’s belief in their ability to perform and complete work tasks; Bandura, 1994) or perceived work ability (i.e., a subjective assessment of their ability to perform at their job; McGonagle et al., 2015) in older workers with physically demanding jobs. Previous research suggests that occupational self-efficacy and perceived work ability are linked to intrinsic job motivation, retirement, and disability leave (McGonagle et al., 2015). For instance, older workers who have lower confidence in their ability to perform at their jobs may be more likely to leave the workforce early.

Worker assistive technology has the potential to help workers with limited or declining abilities, such as aging workers, restore their functional capabilities and successfully meet task demands. Specifically, industrial exoskeletons are assistive technology that can enhance the user’s physical capabilities and provide support with repetitive movements or challenging postures during physical work. Exoskeletons may allow older workers at physically demanding workplaces to perform tasks that once felt challenging, which can increase their confidence.

With the expected benefits of exoskeletons enhancing the users’ physical capabilities, older manual labor workers may view this technology as a useful assistive tool that can help maintain their job-related capabilities. Older workers may be inclined to remain in the workforce longer and retire later than they previously planned if they believe this assistive technology could improve their abilities to perform jobs. Despite the potentially positive psychosocial outcomes, prior research has predominantly focused on identifying the benefits of exoskeletons for worker injury prevention and productivity, leaving a research gap.

Study Objective

The present study investigated how the introduction of exoskeletons may affect occupational self-efficacy and perceived work ability among older workers aged 55 or older in manual labor jobs. We examined changes in self-reported occupational self-efficacy and perceived work ability after older workers learned about exoskeletons that can be potentially available to provide assistance at their physically demanding workplaces. Furthermore, this study examined factors potentially contributing to individual differences in expectations that exoskeletons could increase their ability to perform work tasks. Specifically, older workers with higher physical demands in their current jobs, poorer health, and prior injuries may be more likely to believe they would have better abilities to perform their work tasks with exoskeletons, as they may currently experience challenges in their jobs. In addition, individuals’ perceptions and attitudes toward the exoskeleton technology may influence older workers’ expectations. This study examined if more favorable attitudes and perceptions of exoskeletons are associated with higher expected self-efficacy increases following the introduction of exoskeletons.

Methods

An online survey was conducted via Qualtrics to assess the anticipated changes in occupational self-efficacy and perceived work ability associated with the introduction of exoskeletons among workers aged 55 or older in manual labor jobs. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, older workers can be characterized as being 55 years of age and older (Center for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2023). A priori power analysis was conducted using G*Power version 3.1.9.6 (Faul et al., 2007) to estimate the minimum sample size required to test the study hypothesis. The required sample size to achieve 80% power, at a significance criterion of α = .05, d = .5 for a repeated 2-tailed t-test was 34. A total of 34 participants (29 men and five women; ages ranged between 55 and 71, M = 58.67, SD = 3.66) were recruited from local communities (n = 10), online social media forums (n = 16), and a crowdsourcing platform, Amazon Mechanical Turk (n = 8). Twenty-two participants reported having heard of exoskeletons, and only four reported having prior exoskeleton use.

The survey had four sections: demographics, pre-infographic survey, exoskeleton infographic, and post-infographic survey. The demographics section included questions for age, gender, number of weekly working hours, income, self-rated overall health, prior work injuries, and perceived physical job demand. The pre- and post-infographic surveys measured occupational self-efficacy using a 6-item scale (Schyns & Collani, 2002) and perceived work ability using a single question (McGonagle et al., 2015). In the post-infographic questions, the respondents were asked to answer the same questions considering “knowing that exoskeletons can be potentially available” to assess the changes in those ratings after they were introduced to exoskeletons. The post-infographic survey also measured the perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and affective and cognitive attitudes toward exoskeletons (Yang & Yoo, 2004). An infographic consisting of animated graphic images illustrating the different types, usages, and benefits of industrial exoskeletons was presented between the pre- and post-surveys. Participants received a $5 gift card or cash upon the completion of the survey.

Results

A repeated measures t-test was conducted to compare the baseline occupational self-efficacy rating (i.e., pre-infographic) and after the introduction of exoskeletons (i.e., post-infographic). The difference between pre- (M = 27.20, SD = 4.42) and post-infographic self-efficacy (M = 28.3, SD = 5.38) was not statistically significant; however, there was a trend indicating increases in older workers’ occupational self-efficacy associated with the introduction of exoskeletons, t (33) = −1.76, p = .087, d = −.30. There was no significant difference between the pre-infographic perceived work ability rating (M = 7.88, SD = 2.06) and post-infographic rating (M = 7.85, SD = 1.94), t (33) = .08, p = .931, d = .01.

Furthermore, we examined the contributing factors, including self-rated current overall health, prior work injuries, and the perceived physical job demand. We computed the pre-post infographic self-efficacy differences for each individual by subtracting one’s pre rating from the post rating; thus, higher values indicate more positive expectations for exoskeleton influencing their occupational self-efficacy. A bivariate correlational analysis was conducted to examine associations between the anticipated self-efficacy changes with exoskeletons and the contributing factors. The results indicate that pre-post self-efficacy difference was not associated with older workers’ current physical job demands (note that only partial data were available), prior work injury, and self-rated health. The results also indicate that the pre-post self-efficacy difference was not associated with the perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, affective attitude, and cognitive attitudes toward exoskeletons.

Findings

The results showed that the implementation of exoskeletons in physically demanding workplaces could positively impact older workers’ belief in their ability to perform work tasks, although further investigation is warranted to confirm this observed trend. This finding may suggest that the exoskeleton technology has the potential to restore and augment physical capabilities, enhancing older workers’ confidence in their ability to meet physically challenging job demands. However, the current findings did not support the idea that individuals with poorer overall health or prior injury experiences have greater expectations that exoskeletons can improve their job capabilities, given their current limitations. Further investigation is warranted to identify factors influencing older workers’ occupational self-efficacy and their expectations and perceptions toward technology that can contribute to their job capabilities.