Analysing Digital Information Seeking and Quality Evaluation of Sources about Healthy Lifestyle among Senior Citizens in Iceland
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.26660/rrbsi.2018.14.2.35Keywords:
digital health information, healthy lifestyle, information reliability, information seeking, information usefulness, IcelandAbstract
As a key to senior citizens health and well-being it is important to support their possibilities to be actively involved in health promotional interventions through life-long learning. The study aims at understanding better older people’s digital information seeking, their source preferences and how they evaluate the quality of the information. An improved awareness of the issue may help to increase the efficiency of disseminating information to seniors and enhance their abilities to adopting healthier lifestyles. A random sample was used in the study and data collected in 2012. Participants were categorized into two groups, 60 to 67 years and 68 years or older. Data analysis was performed with ANOVA (one-way). The difference across the age groups was in most cases not significant. Both groups rarely sought digital information and considered the quality of it to be low. The results indicate that the older population can be reached with information about healthy living through professional health websites. Libraries and information professionals have the possibility and the means to take a leadership role and work together with health authorities at improving and stimulating senior’s use of digital health information.
References
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Bromley, C. (2004) Can Britain Close the Digital Divide?, in Park, A. et al. (eds.) British social attitudes: The 21st report, London: Sage, pp. 73-97.
Chaudhuri et al. (2013) Examining Health Information-Seeking Behaviors of Older Adults, CIN: Computers, Informatics, Nursing, 31(1) pp. 547-553, available: https://doi.org/10.1097/01.ncn.0000432131.92020.42.
Enwald, H. et al. (2017) Health Information Behaviour, Attitudes Towards Health Information and Motivating Factors for Encouraging Physical Activity Among Older People: Differences by Sex and Age, Information Research, 22(1), available: http://www.informationr.net/ir/22-1/isic/isic1623.html.
Eriksson-Backa, K. (2012) Finnish ‘Silver Surfers’ and Online Health Information, in Eriksson-Backa, K. et al. (eds.) Exploring the Abyss of Inequalities: 4th International Conference on Well-Being in the Information Society, Communications in Computer and Information Science, 313, Heidelberg: Springer, pp. 138-149, available: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-32850-3_13.
Eriksson-Backa, K. et al. (2012) Health Information Literacy in Everyday Life: A Study of Finns Aged 65-79 Years, Health Informatics Journal, 18(2) pp. 83-94, available: https://doi.org/10.1177/1460458212445797.
Fischer, S.H. et al. (2014) Acceptance and Use of Health Information Technology by Community-Dwelling Elders, International Journal of Medical Informatics, 83(9) pp. 624-635, available: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2014.06.005.
Ford, E.S. et al. (2012) Healthy lifestyle behaviors and all-cause mortality among adults in the United States, Preventive Medicine, 55(1) pp. 23-27, available: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2012.04.016.
Fox, S. and Duggan, M. (2013) Health Online 2013 [online], available: http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2013/Health-online.aspx.
Hoogendam, Y.Y. et al. (2014) Older Age Relates to Worsening of Fine Motor Skills: A Population-Based Study of Middle-Aged and Elderly Persons, Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, 6 p. 259, available: https://doi.org/10.3389/fnagi.2014.00259.
Landsamband eldri borgara [Association for senior citizens] [online], available:http://leb.is/.
Loos, E. (2012) Senior Citizens: Digital Immigrants in their Own Country?, Observatorio, 6(1) pp. 1-23, available: http://dx.doi.org/10.15847/obsOBS612012513.
Lög um málefni aldraðra nr. 125/1999 [Act on the Affairs of the Elderly nr. 125/1999].
Mackenbach, J.P. (2006) Health Inequalities: Europe in Profile, [s.l.]: UK Presidency of the EU.
Manafo, E. and Wong, S. (2015) Exploring Older Adults’ Health Information Seeking Behaviors, Journal of Nutrition, Education and Behavior, 44(1) pp. 85-89, available: https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/gnv200.03.
Medlock, S. et al. (2015) Health Information-Seeking Behavior of Seniors who Use the Internet: A Survey, Journal of Medical Internet Research, 17(1) p. e10, available: https://doi.org/10.2196/jmir.3749.
Pálsdóttir, A. (2009) Seeking Information About Health and Lifestyle on the Internet. Information Research, 14(1), available: http://www.informationr.net/ir/14-1/paper389.html.
Pálsdóttir, A. (2011) Icelanders and Trust on the Internet as a Source of Health and Lifestyle Information, Information Research, 16(1), available: http://www.informationr.net/ir/16-1/paper470.html.
Piper, A.M., Campbell, Ross, and Hollan, J.D. (2010) Exploring the Accessibility and Appeal of Surface Computing for Older Adult Health Care Support, in Proceedings of the 28th international conference on Human factors in computing systems - CHI '10, New York: ACM, pp. 907-916, available: https://doi.org/10.1145/1753326.1753461.
Ries, W. and Pöthiga, D. (1984) Chronological and Biological Age, Experimental Gerontology, 19(3) pp. 211-216.
Shim, M., Bridget, K., and Hornik, R. (2006) Cancer Information Scanning and Seeking Behavior is Associated with Knowledge, Lifestyle Choices, and Screening, Journal of Health Communication,11(sup001) pp. 157-172, available: https://doi.org/10.1080/10810730600637475.
Smith, A. (2014) Older Adults and Technology Use [online], available: http://www.pewinternet.org/2014/04/03/older-adults-and-technology-use.
Soederberg Miller, L.M. and Bell, R.A. (2012) Online Health Information Seeking: The Influence of Age, Information Trustworthiness, and Search Challenges, Journal of Aging and Health, 24(3) pp. 525-541, available: https://doi.org/10.1177/0898264311428167.
Statistics Iceland (2012) Computer and Internet Usage by Individuals 2012, Statistical Series: Tourism, Transport and IT, 97 pp. 1-14.
Thane, P. (1989) History and the Sociology of Ageing, Social History of Medicine, 2(1) pp. 93-96.
The Prague Declaration: Towards an Information Literate Society: Information Literacy Meeting of Experts (2003) [online], available: http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/files/19636/11228863531PragueDeclaration.pdf/PragueDeclaration.pdf.
United Nations (2013) World Population Aging [online], available: http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/publications/pdf/ageing/WorldPopulationAgeing2013.pdf.
Weaver, J.B. et al. (2010) Health Information-Seeking Behaviors, Health Indicators, and Health Risks, American Journal of Public Health, 100(8) pp. 1520-1525, available: https://doi.org/10.2105/ajph.2009.180521.
World Health Organization (2007) Global Age Friendly Cities: A Guide, Geneva: WHO.
World Health Organization (2014) The Case for Investing in Public Health: The Strengthening Public Health Services and Capacity: A Key Pillar of the European Regional Health Policy Framework Health 2020: A Public Health Summary Report for EPHO 8 [online], available: http://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/278073/Case-Investing-Public-Health.pdf.
Zulman, D.M. et al. (2011) Trust in the Internet as a Health Resource Among Older Adults: Analysis of Data from a Nationally Representative Survey, Journal of Medical Internet Research, 13(1) p. e19, available: https://doi.org/10.2196/jmir.1552.
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Published
2018-09-10
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Pálsdóttir, Ágústa. (2018). Analysing Digital Information Seeking and Quality Evaluation of Sources about Healthy Lifestyle among Senior Citizens in Iceland. Revista Română De Biblioteconomie și Știința Informării = Romanian Journal of Library and Information Science, 14(2), 35–45. https://doi.org/10.26660/rrbsi.2018.14.2.35
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