22. The Internet without Fear – Home Care

Home Care with Liam Donnelly of Sandra Cooney’s Home Care – 18 Mar 2009

Internet without Fear Subscribe to RSS

Listen to other Internet without Fear shows

Today we are joined by Liam Donnelly of Sandra Cooney’s Home Care.

The show is sponsored by ICS Skills, who bring you Equalskills the fun and exciting way for complete beginners to learn all about using computers and the internet – for young and old.

As we are learning, the internet is part of our lives with over 50% of the population connected.

The question for today is, can elderly people also use the Internet and computers?

They also want to enjoy life and to use the stuff we have available – for pleasure, entertainment – and learning new things!

And what is more important, Internet also could make their life much easier – so how can we help them use it effectively?

Facts Section

A national Kaiser Family Foundation survey of older Americans found that as the Internet becomes an increasingly important resource for info rming decisions about health and health care options:

  • less than a third (31%) of seniors (age 65 and older) have ever gone online, but
  • more than two-thirds (70%) of the next generation of seniors (50-64 year-olds) have done so.

The differences among seniors and 50-64 year-olds are striking and indicate that online resources for health info rmation may soon play a much larger role among older Americans.

  • Twenty-one percent of seniors have gone online to look for health info rmation compared to 53% of 50-64 year-olds;
  • 8% of seniors get “a lot” of health info rmation online compared to 24% of 50-64 year-olds;
  • the Internet is 5th on a list of media sources of health info rmation for seniors compared to first among 50-64 year-olds;
  • and 26% of seniors trust the Internet “a lot” or “some” to provide accurate health info rmation, compared to 58% of 50-64 year-olds.

The survey is a nationally representative, random digit dial telephone survey of 1,450 adults age 50 and older, including 583 respondents age 65 and older. The report was released at a briefing held in Washington , D.C. on January 12, 2005.

Presenter: Peter Lawless

Radio Station: Dublin City FM 103.2

Airtime: 18 Mar 2009, 1.30pm – 2pm

Listen to other Internet without Fear shows