The Use and Know-how of ICT-technology in Different Age Groups

Leena Korpinen

, Rauno Pääkkönen

and Fabriziomaria Gobba

Environmental Health, Tampere University of Technology, Tampere, Finland

Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Tampere, Finland

Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy

Keywords: ICT, Computers, Age.

Abstract: When developing various ICT solutions to support people’s well-being, the systems are quite often based on

the use of computers or smart phones. However, in different age groups, the skills to use ICT can vary;

therefore, not all people can use new technical systems. The aim of this paper was to investigate the self-

reported use and know-how of the ICT-technology in different age groups and using the answers to the

following questions: ‘how often do you use a desktop computer at leisure?’ and ‘how well do you know the

desktop computer?’. The study was carried out as a cross-sectional study by posting the questionnaire to

15,000 working-age Finns. To the question ‘how well do you know the desktop computer?’, 22% of the 20-

30 age group answered ‘very well’ and 19.1% of the 31-40 age group also replied ‘very well’. In the 41-50

age group, the value was 15.7%, and in the age group 51-60, the value was 10.6%. In the future, when new

well-being ICT technology is developed, it is important to take into account that older people do not know

as much about ICT as younger people.

1 INTRODUCTION

With the advance of well-being ICT technology, a

variety of new devices or internet solutions have

entered the market. The use of computers and other

mobile internet or communication devices has

increased. For example, according to the Finnish

Statistics Office (2008), in 2006, the percentages of

computer users among people aged 18–64 years was

100% in upper-level, white-collar workers and

students. According to the Finnish statistical office

(in spring 2007), 79% of aged 15 to 74 used the

internet. However, only 40% of people over the age

of 60 used the internet.

The Tampere University of Technology (TUT)

has investigated the health effects of new technical

equipment using a questionnaire sent to 15,000

working-age Finns. The questionnaire included

questions on the familiarity and usage of new

technical devices, prevalence of physical and mental

symptoms, accidents associated with mobile phone

use and an open-ended question on health and new

technology (Korpinen et al., 2009).

Our earlier article “Self-reported use of ICT

(Information and communication technology) uptake

in 2002 and discomfort amongst Finns aged 45-66”

presented that less than 30% of Finland’s middle-

aged population use daily desktop computers at

leisure. The use of new technical equipment among

the group of people who are outside working life

was lower than the people’s usage in general (4,9%

of women outside working life and 13.1% of men

outside workig life). (Korpinen and Pääkkönen,

2010).

The amount of daily internet use was 17.5% in

all data of Finns aged 45-66, 4.9% of women outside

working life and 8.0% of men outside working life.

However, 72% of all Finns aged 45-66 used mobile

phones on a daily basis, and 59.4% of female

respondents outside working life and 60.3% of male

respondents outside working life used mobile

phones daily. (Korpinen and Pääkkönen, 2010).

The aim of this paper was to investigate the self-

reported use of the ICT-technology in different age

groups and using the answers to the questions ‘how

often do you use a desktop computer at leisure?’ and

“how well do you know the desktop computer?”. In

addition, some self-reported symptom’s influence on

the answers will be studied.

Korpinen L., Pääkkönen R. and Gobba F..

The Use and Know-how of ICT-technology in Different Age Groups.

DOI: 10.5220/0005142200560060

In Proceedings of the 2nd International Congress on Neurotechnology, Electronics and Informatics (NEUROTECHNIX-2014), pages 56-60

ISBN: 978-989-758-056-7

 2014 SCITEPRESS (Science and Technology Publications, Lda.)

2 METHODS

2.1 Study Population and

Questionnaire

The cross-sectional study focused on the working-

age population, and the questionnaire was sent to

15,000 Finns between the ages of 18 and 65. The

names and addresses of the participants were

obtained as a random sample from the Finnish

Population Register Centre. The study design was

approved by the Ethical Committee of Pirkanmaa

Health District, Finland (decision R02099).

The questionnaire included six sections: (1)

background information, such as age, gender,

marital status, education, occupation, and home

county; (2) the familiarity and use of given technical

devices at leisure and at work; (3) physical loading

and ergonomics; (4) psychological welfare; (5)

accidents and close-call situations at leisure or at

work and (6) an open-ended question regarding

‘other observations concerning technology and

health’. The details of the questionnaire have been

published earlier (Korpinen et al., 2009).

2.2 Analyses

The statistical analysis was performed using IBM

SPSS Statistics versions 22 software. Age groups

were classified as under 20, 21–30, 31–40, 41–50,

51–60, and over 60. For the analysis, we took group

2 (21–30), group 3 (31–40), group 4 (41–50), and

group 5 (51–60). We analyzed the answer

percentages to the questions: a) How often do you

use the desktop computer at leisure? (choices: (0)

cannot say, (1) not at all, (2) less than monthly, (3)

monthly, (4) weekly, and (5) daily); b) How well do

you know the desktop computer? (choices: (0)

cannot say, (1) very poorly, (2) pretty poorly, (3)

moderately, (4) pretty well, (5) very well).

The options for question 16) ‘Have you suffered

a) sleeping disorders/disturbances, b) depression,

during the last 12 months?’ was classified so that

answers cannot say, not at all and sometimes were

coded 0 (no symptoms), and quite often, often and

very often were 1 (symptoms).

To compare differences between the age groups

we used independent samples Mann-Whitney U-test

analyses.

3 RESULTS

A total of 6,121 responses (3,486 women and 2,625

men) were received, and the average age of the

respondents was 41 years old. The amount of the

responses to the different age groups were: in the

group 2 (21–30) 1229 answers, in the group 3 (31–

40) 1305 answers, in the group 4 (41–50) 1375

answers and in the group 5 (51–60) 1479 answers.

Figure 1 shows the answers of all participants to

the question ‘how often do you use a desktop

computer at leisure?’ and Figure 2 shows the

answers to the question ‘how well do you know the

desktop computer?’

Figure 1: The answers for the question ‘how often do you

use a desktop computer at leisure?’.

Figure 2: The answers for the question ‘how well do you

know the desktop computer?’.

Figure 3 shows results for the question ‘how

well do you know the desktop computer?’ in

different occupational groups.

Figure 3 shows that occupational groups

“homework, students” and “upper-level white collar

workers” know the desktop computers best.

Altogether, 11% of the participants outside working

life know desktop computers very well and 29 % of

them know it pretty well (Figure 4).

TheUseandKnow-howofICT-technologyinDifferentAgeGroups

Figure 3: The answers of participants for the question

‘how well do you know the desktop computer?’ in

different occupational groups.

The answers of respondents outside working life.

(Figure 4).

Figure 4: The answers of participants outside working life

for the question ‘how well do you know the desktop

computer?’.

Figure 5 shows the answers to the question ‘how

well do you know the desktop computer?’ in

different age groups.

Figure 5: the answers to the question ‘how well do you

know the desktop computer?’ in different age groups.

Figure 6: the answers of participants who self-reported

sleeping disorders / disturbances to the question ‘how well

do you know the desktop computer?’.

Figures 6 and 7 show the answers of participants

who self-reported sleeping disorders/ disturbances or

NEUROTECHNIX2014-InternationalCongressonNeurotechnology,ElectronicsandInformatics

depression, during the last 12 months, to the

question ‘how well do you know the desktop

computer?’ Figures 8 and 9 show the answers of

participants who did not report sleeping disorders /

disturbances or depression, during the last 12

months.

Figure 7: the answers of participants who self-reported

depression to the question ‘how well do you know the

desktop computer?’.

Figure 8: the answers of participants who did not self-

report sleeping disorders / disturbances to the question

‘how well do you know the desktop computer?’.

Figure 9: the answers of participants who did not self-

report depression to the question ‘how well do you know

the desktop computer?’.

To the question ‘how well do you know the

desktop computer?’, 22% of the age group 20-30

answered very well and 19.1% of the 31-40 age

group also answered very well. In the age group 41-

50, the value was 15.7% and in the 51-60 age group,

the value was 10.6%.

Table 1 shows the results of the comparison

between the different age groups using the answers

to the question ‘how often do you use a desktop

computer at leisure?’ (with independent samples

Mann-Whitney U-test analyses).

Table 1: The results of the comparison between the

different age groups using the answer to the question ‘how

often do you use a desktop computer at leisure?’.

Comparison groups with

Mann-Whitney U-test

Asymp. Sig.(2-tailed)

Group 2 – Group 5 <0.001*

Group 3 – Group 5 <0.001*

Group 4 – Group 5 <0.001*

Group 2 – Group 4 <0.001*

Group 2 – Group 3 <0.001*

Group 3 – Group 4 0.060

* significant at p < 0.05

In table 1, there were significant differences

between almost all age groups. Younger persons

used more a computer at leisure than older persons.

Table 2 shows the results of the comparison

between the different age groups using the answer to

the question ‘How well do you know the desktop

computer?’ (with independent samples Mann-

Whitney U-test analyses).

Table 2: The results of the comparison between the

different age groups using the answer to the question

‘How well do you know the desktop computer?’.

Comparison groups with

Mann-Whitney U-test

Asymp. Sig.(2-tailed)

Group 2 – Group 5 <0.001*

Group 3 – Group 5 <0.001*

Group 4 – Group 5 <0.001*

Group 2 – Group 4 <0.001*

Group 2 – Group 3 <0.001*

Group 3 – Group 4 <0.001*

* significant at p < 0.05

In table 2, there were significant differences

between all age groups so that younger persons

know better a computer than older persons.

4 DISCUSSION

In this questionnaire study, the population was

15,000 working-age persons in Finland, and the

amount of responses was 6,121 (41%) (Korpinen et

TheUseandKnow-howofICT-technologyinDifferentAgeGroups

al. 2009). The data was quite large. However the

non-response rate was over 50%. The main focuses

of the questionnaire were the use of the new

technical units (e.g., desktop computers, portable

computers, hand-held computers, communicators,

internet, mobile phones, electronic marketplaces/

commerce and teletext) and physical/mental

symptoms. We asked many questions of the

participants’ know-how regarding new technology.

Therefore, we cannot make any strong conclusions

from the data. In addition, this questionnaire data is

about 10 years old, which is a long time in consumer

technology. For example, the use of the internet has

increased in all age groups. However, there can still

be differences between different groups. Typically,

young persons are more active in using new

technology.

In general, about 30% of all participants used

desktop computers daily, and 16% of all know the

desktop computer very well. Figures 3-8 show that

younger persons and persons who typically use

computers at work know desktop computers better

than others. This is easy to understand. However, it

is important to remember, when new well-being

technology or technology as part of treatment will be

developed, that older persons and persons outside of

working life are not always experts in the use of

technology. On the other side, older persons are

typically persons who need medical treatment and

the technology developed for the well-being area.

Figures 6-9 show that persons who self-reported

depression or sleep disorders / disturbances are as

familiar as others with desktop computers and show

in practise no difference. So those symptoms are not

relevant in the development of the new well-being

technology.

5 CONCLUSIONS

The daily use of desktop computers of all

participants was about 30% at leisure in all the data,

and 16% know desktop computers very well. To the

question ‘how well do you know the desktop

computer?’, 22% of the age group 20-30 answered

very well and 19.1% of the age group 31-40 also

answered very well. In age group 41-50, the value

was 15.7%, and in the 51-60 age group, the value

was 10.6%. Altogether, 11% of the participants

outside working life know desktop computers very

well. In the future, it is important to take into

account that older people do not know as much

about ICT as younger people, and it can influence

the use of the new well-being technology.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The assistance of the staff (Noomi Suuronen, Jari

Latva-Teikari and Riitta Lehtelä) of the

Environmental Health group, Tampere University of

Technology, is gratefully acknowledged.

REFERENCES

Finnish Statistics office, 2008. 2. Still more adult use

computers. (in Finnish) http:// www.stat.fi/til/aku/

2006/03/aku_2006_03_2008-06-03_kat_002_fi.html

[Last updated 3 June 2008]

Finnish Statistics office, 2007. Internet used by 79 per cent

of the population at the beginning of 2007.

http://www.tilastokeskus.fi/til/sutivi/2007/sutivi_2007

_2007-09-28_tie_001_en.html [Last updated 28.

September 2007].

Korpinen, L., Suuronen, N., Latva-Teikari, J., Pääkkönen,

R., 2009. Questionnaire on the health effects of new

technical equipment. International Journal of

Industrial, Ergonomics 39, 105–114.

Korpinen, L., Pääkkönen, R., 2010. Self-reported use of

ICT (Information and communication technology)

uptake in 2002 and discomfort amongst Finns aged

45–66, Applied Ergonomics 42, 85–90.

NEUROTECHNIX2014-InternationalCongressonNeurotechnology,ElectronicsandInformatics