IT Skills of Young and Older People: A Qualitative Study

Figures & data

Table 1. Participants‘inclusion criteria.

Interviews with
Younger people	Older people
No cognitive impairments	No cognitive impairments
Resident in Halle (living alone or in community)	Resident in Halle (living alone or in community)
Willingness to volunteer	People with need for support in their daily life, e.g. accompanying them to cultural activities; Willingness to volunteer.
Aged under 60 years	Aged 60 years or older

Table 2. Sample characteristics (n = 20).

	Younger people	Older people
Mean age ± SD, years (min-max)	36 ± 8.6 (27-56)	74 ± 8.1 (60-83)
Sex
women	4	9
men	6	1
other	0	0
Living situation
alone	–	4
with a partner	–	6
Living arrangement
own property	–	1
housing association	2	6
other	8	3

Table

WhatsApp Instagram Twitter Facebook YouTube Weather app

Ntv (news app) DB (transportation app) Other, e.g. plant identification app, bank app, stay-friends, barcode scanner, Pinterest

Table 3. Purpose of use of digital devices by younger people and seniors.

	Younger people	Older people
Smartphone
Reading news	✔	✔
Navigation	✔	✔
Tracking vital signs	✔	✔
Online banking	✔	✔
Online shopping	✔	✔
Surfing the internet	✔	✔
Taking and sending pictures		✔
Getting informations e.g. weather, side effects, opening hours		✔
Making a phone call		✔
Laptop/ Tablet
Checking & writing e-mails	✔	✔
Printing/scanning documents	✔	✔
Online banking	✔	✔
Watching movies	✔
Reading news		✔
Playing games		✔
Surfing the internet		✔

Table 4. Overview of supportive environment for use of assistive technology by the younger and older participants.

Participants	Category
Younger people	Personal contact (5/10)  • Hotline/contact form/chat function (5/10)
	Video tutorials (5/10)
	Other:  • FAQ (4/10)  • Google (6/10)  • YouTube video (2/10)
Older people	Personal contact  • Friends and acquaintances (4/10)  • Children and grandchildren (4/10)  • Wife/husband/partner (2/10)
	Video tutorials (5/10)
	Other:  • YouTube video (1/10)  • Google (3/10)