พฤติกรรมการใช้และการรู้เท่าทันอินเทอร์เน็ตและทัศคติการใช้เนื้อหาด้านสุขภาวะ บนอินเทอร์เน็ตของผู้สูงอายุ Internet usage behaviors, literacy, and attitude towards utilization of wellness content on the internet among Thai elderly

Abstract

In the increasingly ageing society in Thailand, preparing physical, mental, social, and intellectual health is a necessity for to improve elderly’s quality of life and self-reliance.   Internet is a widely used medium because of   its wide range of service performance and service speed. Therefore, the number of elderly using internet is increasing significantly every year.   Objectives of this research were 1) to study the behavior and internet literacy of older people, and 2) to compare elderly’s attitude towards internet utilization and wellness contents.  Data collection was completed by using a survey of 410 older people aged of 50 years and over in Nakhon Ratchasima elderly club.  Data were analyzed with descriptive statistics, t-test, F-test, and Post-hoc tests with LSD.

                Results found that the majority of elderly responding to the survey were 50-55 years old, living outside the municipality, had a secondary school or undergraduate levels of education, working as government employee, had 1-5 years experience of using the internet with a primary purpose to communicate with friends and health professional by Facebook, and had Internet literacy of access and analysis skills. Moreover, elderly with different education levels, career and work, Internet use experience, and objective in using internet had significantly different levels of internet literacy (p < .05).  In terms of Internet use attitude, it was found that the elderly who had different levels of internet use experience and objective of using internet had significantly different of levels of attitudes about the reason of use, the trust of content, and the use of content from the Internet (p<.05). Results from this study suggested that caregivers may communicate wellness-related content to the elderly through the internet, but must be aware of the inequality of elderly’s Internet literacy.