Technology and the relationship to quality of life in later adulthood

Abstract

The use of information and communication technologies (ICT) by older adults has the potential to enhance the quality of life in those who remain connected to family and society (Feist, Parker, Howard, & Hugo, 2010).The purpose of our study was to evaluate the use of ICT by older adults to remain viable participants in society and in the lives of their families. This nonrandom pilot study, conducted at senior agencies in Northwestern Wisconsin, investigated differences between users and non-users of ICT to stay connected to significant people in their lives and to society overall. Informed by literature and Family Ecological Theory (Smith, Hamon, Ingoldsby, & Miller 2009), we predicted that older adult users of ICT would report better quality of life than nonusers. Survey data were statistically analyzed using cross-tabulations, mean comparisons, and reliability analysis. Moderate support was found for the hypothesis. Implications for practitioners are to encourage users and non-users to work through possible self-imposed age barriers and increase their frequency of communication with current social networks through the use of ICT. Implications for future research would be increased sample size with greater diversity in socioeconomic status, race and geographic location. We recommend a mixed method approach using qualitative interviews for the older adult lived experience perspectives