Use of Information and Communication Technology in Healthcare Context by Older Adults in Germany: Initial Results of the Tech4Age Long-Term Study

Abstract

In 2016 the interdisciplinary research team Tech4Age started its long-term survey to evaluate the use of information and communication technology (ICT) by older adults () in Germany. This study focuses on the use of ICT devices and applications, the evaluation how these devices are operated in terms of ergonomic hand positions, the investigation of health information usage as well as technology affinity, health literacy and computer literacy. The first run of the Tech4Age long-term study was done by sending a paper-based questionnaire to 5,000 individuals older than 60 years randomly selected from the total German population and equally locally distributed within Germany. Responses were collected from N = 551 participants with a mean age of 69.17 years (SD = 5.787). The gender ratio of the sample is balanced, including 51.3% male and 48.7% female. Results provide descriptive insights into technology usage and knowledge about influencing factors. Older adults already use modern ICT on a large scale, for example to do online banking or for mobility reasons (navigation, booking tickets, etc.), but health-related ICT products and applications have been used less, mainly due to mistrust. Investigation of health information usage showed that doctors and pharmacists are the main sources older adults rely on. Two thirds of all participants were satisfied with general information they got about health. The evaluation of the ergonomic use of ICT devices revealed a common way of use, namely that a majority of older adults prefer to use their ICT devices in the case of a small display in portrait mode and in the case of larger displays in portrait as well as landscape mode. Touch input is always performed with a finger or the second hand, the one not holding the device. The article will present and discuss the results in detail.