Factors predicting the use of technology: Findings from the center for research and education on aging and technology enhancement (create).

Abstract

The successful adoption of technology is becoming increasingly important to functional independence. The present article reports findings from the Center for Research and Education on Aging and Technology Enhancement (CREATE) on the use of technology among community-dwelling adults. The sample included 1,204 individuals ranging in age from 18-91 years. All participants completed a battery that included measures of demographic characteristics, self-rated health, experience with technology, attitudes toward computers, and component cognitive abilities. Findings indicate that the older adults were less likely than younger adults to use technology in general, computers, and the World Wide Web. The results also indicate that computer anxiety, fluid intelligence, and crystallized intelligence were important predictors of the use of technology. The relationship between age and adoption of technology was mediated by cognitive abilities, computer self-efficacy, and computer anxiety. These findings are discussed in terms of training strategies to promote technology adoption.

How Can eHealth Technology Address Challenges Related to Multimorbidity? Perspectives from Patients with Multiple Chronic Conditions

“…Among individuals who are older or in ill health, many refrain from using eHealth technology because of distrust, discomfort, or lack of knowledge. 36,[45][46][47] Even among the technology users in this study, individuals reported a wide range of eHealth literacy levels and frequency of technology use. However, use of online resources is steadily increasing among older adults, 48,49 and once online, individuals who have MCCs or who are in poor health are more likely to use health-related resources.…”

The role of spatial abilities and age in performance in an auditory computer navigation task

“…However, older adults are often less successful than their younger counterparts in using technology (e.g., Charness, Schumann, & Boritz, 1992;Czaja et al, 2006;Czaja, Sharit, Ownby, Roth, & Nair, 2001;Kelley & Charness, 1995). This may be due, at least in part, to age-related changes in cognitive abilities that are required by current systems for successful task performance.…”

“…On the first day, participants completed a core battery that assessed perceptual speed, working memory, long term memory, verbal ability, reasoning, and spatial abilities as well as a hearing and vision screening (see Czaja, Charness, Fisk, Hertzog, Nair, Rogers, & Sharit, 2006 for details of the protocol). For the present analysis, the ability measures of interest were working memory (alphabet span; Craik, 1986), attention (trail making test; Reitan, 1958), and spatial abilities (paper folding and cube comparison; Ekstrom, French, Harman, & Dermen, 1976).…”

“…interactive voice response systems; aging; cognitive abilities; interface In light of evidence that cognitive abilities play an important role in the performance of everyday activities (e.g., Diehl, Willis, & Schaie, 1995), researchers have attempted to identify and measure the influence of cognitive abilities on a wide variety of activities (e.g., Czaja et al, 2006;Kelley & Charness, 1995;Sharit, Czaja, Nair, & Lee, 2003). One such ability, spatial ability, has been shown to be predictive of performance on a wide variety of everyday tasks such as way finding, map reading and computer tasks such as text-editing, spreadsheet usage, map-and computer-based information search tasks, even when other more general ability factors are controlled (for a review, see Pak, Rogers, & Fisk, 2006).…”

A conceptual framework concerning education as factor of elders’ acceptance for smart assistive technologies

“…Papers were also identified (González, Ramírez, & Viadel, 2015), (Cimperman & et al, 2016) that concluded a insignificant or neutral influence of education level upon the elders' acceptance for digital technologies, declaring that even older people with a low level of education modify their attitudes positively toward new technologies when they are motivated by application (learning, connecting to others, entertainment). The reason for this influence would lie not in the specific skills of using the technology (that were not delivered in school long before) but in the development of so called "crystallized intelligence" (Czaja & et al, 2006), wich level is determined by the initial education level and has the ability to strongly diminish the negative atitude towards technology (computer anxiety).…”