Use and Acceptance of Digital Communication Technology by Older Adults for Social Connectedness During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Mixed Methods Study

Background:

During the Covid-19 pandemic, use of digital communication technology (DCT) was a critical mechanism for maintaining social connectedness by older adults, perceived as being at higher health risks. These risks included mental health challenges related to social distancing. Prior to the pandemic, low uptake and use of technology by older adults was a known problem, known as the digital divide. Not much is known about how acceptance and use of technology by older adults may have changed as a result of the pandemic.

Objective:

To explore how older adults maintained social connectedness through DCT during the pandemic and to understand factors influencing the use and acceptance.

Methods:

A mixed-method explorative field study was set up, involving surveys, interviews of 25 community dwelling older adults (65–88 y) living in the United Kingdom. Survey’s included Internet acceptance questionnaire (based on the technology acceptance model (TAM)); Covid-19 dysfunctional anxiety was captured using the Covid-19 anxiety scale (CAS). Background information (demographics, use of technology) was gathered before conducting semi-structured interviews. We hypothesized that CAS would affect constructs of TAM, and that predictive constructs of TAM would have remain valid during the pandemic. We also posited that there would be unidentified themes outside the TAM model that impacted acceptance and use of DCT. We used the quantitative data to guide the semi-structured interviews which were then analyzed through thematic analysis to identify additional themes.

Results:

Correlational analysis showed that CAS influenced all constructs of TAM confirming our first hypothesis. We also saw that the predictive constructs of TAM, especially perceived ease of use (PEU), and perceived usefulness (PU) remained valid during the pandemic, confirming our second hypothesis. Common acceptance influencing themes were encountered in both the quantitative and qualitative analyses, three¬¬ matching the known elements of TAM (PU, PEU and behavioral intentions). We identified two additional themes affecting acceptance, namely influence of the pandemic (situational context), and privacy and security concerns. DCT use (especially email and videoconferencing use) increased during the pandemic but the results related to social networking sites (SNS) were mixed.

Conclusions:

The Covid-19 pandemic impacted technology acceptance and use by older adults, encouraging their use of certain DCT applications (email and videoconferencing applications such as WhatsApp). These applications insulated them from adverse effects (social isolation and loneliness). Other social networking applications exerted a negative influence, increasing anxiety and general feeling of negativity. Future studies should maximize older adult agency of design, privacy, security and user requirements for development. We also recommend when considering DCT acceptance for older adults, our additional identified themes should be considered alongside the existing TAM constructs. Clinical Trial: Not Applicable