Course:LIBR559A/Namazi, K. H. & McClintic, M. (2003)

Citation

Namazi, K. H. & McClintic, M. (2003). Computer use among elderly persons in long-term care facilities. Educational Gerontology, 29(6), 535-550. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/713844391

Annotation

The purpose of this study was to determine if computers can be helpful and beneficial to elderly people residing in a long-term care facilities. This study was to offer computer classes to the elderly residents in order to help them connect with the outside world and show them how to use computers based on their interests, skills and hobbies. The theoretical framework used is the SCOT method.

In the early stages of the study there was a lot of interest in the computer classes and it was the most popular activity at the facility. However, after the first few months the enthusiasm faded and many elderly became less interested. By the end of the year only 5 participants remained in the study. Physical, cognitive and sensory limitations created the greatest obstacle for learning computer skills. For example, using the cursor and seeing it on the screen was an issue, learning computer commands, double clicking the mouse was hard for those with arthritis and unfamiliar with the keyboard layout and language such as tab, shift, esc. Also, many had sore necks from their positions to see the monitor. Another factor for the decline in participation were hardware, software and other technological factors. An observation made in this study was that computers were not designed for elderly individuals with physical or mild cognitive impairments. The issues addressed were the same as mentioned above including difficulties with passwords, logging on and off and slow internet.

The facility had 300 beds. This was a qualitative study with the use of questionnaires which were handed out at the start of the study, at 6 months and 12 months. The questionnaire collected information on demographics, interests, abilities and willingness to learn about computers. The sample size was 24 residents who attended classes. 18 females and 6 males with ages ranging from 68-95.

Three computers were set up in the small library of the long-term care facility. Two months prior to the start of the study, staff were to encourage everyone to participate. The learning sessions were set up twice a week for 3 hours and the residents where encouraged to at least attend for 30 minutes. The authors of this study, staff of the facility and volunteers ran the sessions. Additional sessions were set up for participants that wanted one on one classes. Only a few of the participants attended classes regularly, most attended on a drop-in basis.

Computers play a vital role today, not having the knowledge or access to one can make many elderly people of a long-term care facility feel isolated. This is one of the few studies done on computer use of the elderly at a long-term care facility that found the skills acquired a great learning experience. Although the results show that at the end only 5 out of 24 participants stayed in the study, the results would have been different if the logistics were more accommodating. An ergonomically designed computer with a bigger, smarter and slower mouse, a more visible curser and larger font on the keyboard keys would have been beneficial. A weakness of this study is that since the location and demographics of the participants is not mentioned it is difficult to apply the findings outside of this facility. However, what can be noted is that designers of computers do not consider users of different generations and had the equipment been ergonomically better participants may have stayed for the full year the study operated.

This study could be helpful for librarians organizing and running computer workshops for their elderly patrons. It is possible that interest in the workshops may decline or not all elderly people will have access due to ergonomics and hardware design of computers.

Page Author: Irene Moreno