The Use of New Information and Communication Technology for Health Information Among Older Icelanders

Abstract

The paper examines the adoption and use of information and communications technologies (ICTs) for health information among Icelanders’ aged 56 years and older. A survey explored how Icelanders’ who are 56 years or older have taken new health ICT into use, and how they perceive their possibilities to do so. Following research questions were asked: 1) How do older adults use recently available ICT to access information about their health history and about healthy lifestyle? 2) How do they evaluate their capabilities to start using new ICT? 3) How do they perceive their possibilities to receive help at using ICT? A random sample was used, and after weighing the data by gender, age, place of residence and education it corresponds with the distribution in the population. The results demonstrate that the participants were motivated towards getting health information, also in digital form. The majority of them had, however, not yet adopted new ICT for health information into use but used older technology, such as blood pressure monitors to track and record their health information. About half of them, however, considered it difficult to take new ICT into use and the majority claimed that it was not easy for them to get help at using technology when they needed it. The main finding of the study is that it is not sufficient to make new ICT systems available in order to provide older adults with information about their health history and healthy behaviour. For them to be ready to accept new technology and take it into use, they need training and technical support.