The Study of Smartphone Usage Competency Assessment and Training for the Elderly

Area of Science:

• Gerontology
• Human-Computer Interaction
• Educational Technology

Background:

• The increasing prevalence of digital health services necessitates improved digital literacy among the elderly.
• Smartphone adoption among seniors is rising, yet usage competence remains a barrier to accessing digital resources.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate an assessment tool for smartphone usage competence in older adults.
• To design and implement a targeted training program to enhance elderly individuals' smartphone skills.
• To evaluate the effectiveness of the training program on improving smartphone usage ability.

Main Methods:

• A 34-item smartphone usage competency list was established via expert surveys and panel consensus.
• A training program and learning aids were developed based on identified competencies and existing literature.
• A quasi-experimental design with 41 elderly participants assessed pre- and post-training smartphone ability via self-administered questionnaires.

Main Results:

• Post-training assessments showed significant improvements across all measured smartphone usage competencies.
• Despite overall gains, specific items indicated persistent difficulties in comprehension for some elderly participants.
• The developed training program demonstrated efficacy in enhancing digital skills for the target demographic.

Conclusions:

• This research presents a novel framework for defining and assessing smartphone usage competence in the elderly.
• The study successfully developed and piloted a training program, offering a foundational resource for future interventions.
• Findings suggest that tailored training is crucial for enabling elderly individuals to fully benefit from mobile health (mHealth) services and digital technologies.