Developing a Questionnaire to Investigate Older Individuals’ Cell Phone Use and Age-Inclusive Implementation through Technology

Abstract

No questionnaires to obtain information about older South Africans’ cell phone use were available. This chapter details the development of three new questionnaires for this purpose. The iGNiTe questionnaire (Version 1) addressed the need for information about older persons’ cell phone use and intra/intergenerational relations. Items, in English, were derived from the literature and current research, subsequently translated into Afrikaans, and piloted. Trained student fieldworkers used devices to collect responses from selected older individuals (n = 128). The results of exploratory factor analyses and reliability coefficients then informed the we-DELIVER questionnaire (Version 2) for collecting data on older persons’ cell phone use and service needs. Subject experts’ revisions preceded piloting. Questionnaires were translated from English into Setswana, Sesotho, and isiZulu and administered by student fieldworkers. The results (n = 302) were analysed and literature and theory consulted to develop Version 3, AGeConnect. We present what we believe to be the first online questionnaire (https://ageconnect.questionpro.com/) designed to longitudinally study and document data on older individuals’ cell phone use here and abroad. (Afrikaans, English, Setswana, Sesotho, and isiZulu are five of South Africa’s 11 official languages).