ICT and senior citizens : a pilot study in Portugal

• Autor(a) principal: Cova Fernández, Euclides José
• Data de Publicação: 2014
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.5/12899
• topic: Seniors; Older people; Elderly; Digital inclusion; Digital divide; Social gerontology; Educational gerontology; Information and communication technologies; Life-long learning; Active aging; Personnes âgées; Personnes du troisième âge; Inclusion numérique; Fracture numérique; Gérontologie sociale; Gérontologie éducative; Technologies de l'information et de la communication; L'apprentissage tout au long de la vie; Le vieillissement actif; Seniores; Pessoas mais velhas; Idosos; Inclusão digital; Exclusão digital; Gerontologia social; Gerontologia educacional; Tecnologias da Informação e comunicação; Aprendizagem ao longo da vida; Envelhecimento ativo; Adultos mayores; Mayores; Inclusión digital; Exclusión digital; Gerontología social; Gerontología educacional; Tecnologías de la información y de la comunicación; Aprendizaje a lo largo de la vida; Envejecimiento activo; Domínio/Área Científica::Ciências Sociais::Ciências da Educação

The research aimed to describe the sociodemographic data, the ownership and use of information and communication technology devices of Portuguese senior citizen participants in the study and to design a research instrument. This exploratory, descriptive and quantitative research performed a survey through a questionnaire to 162 seniors in Portugal. The investigation revealed that the majority of older people are retired, married who have elementary education, live with their families and are mostly female. The study allowed us to know which are the most owned and used devices by seniors are: TV remote control, mobile telephone and corded telephone. Those who have computers think these devices are useful and those who do not own these tools claim they do not need them. The TV remote control is the device that users feel more autonomous and it is also the most frequently used device. Just 23% of elderly in the sample are computer users. The majority of them is male gender and has attended the secondary school level. The investigation also revealed that the activity most frequently performed using the computer, is Internet surfing. In addition, seniors showed a favorable predisposition regarding the contribution of computers to their quality of life. The results described throughout this research may provide general clues about the topic of digital inclusion of older adults in Portugal and the need to propose policies and educational programs tailored to the characteristics of people in this age group.