Research Proposal
Influence of Digital Technology on Senior People Aged 60 and Above: A Qualitative Study
Introduction
With development of technology along with medicine unceasing progress over the decades, the
growth of older people population now becomes a serious phenomenon in most countries. For
China, with huge population base, certainly cannot ignore the potential risk under the upcoming
aged tendency. For people, physical and mental functions will decline by 1.5% [1] each year after
the beginning of old age inevitably. Some studies stated that over 40% of older adults will suffer
from mobility limitation and 50% [2] of them will experience chronic pain. With recognition of
these aging effects, it is important enough to raise the attention of the technology, or to say,
electronic appliances related to senior people’s daily lives. This study aims to investigate every
possible barriers of using high-tech products hidden behind their daily activities and the influence,
to be more specific, social connectedness and belongingness, of rapid-updating technology
products and apps’ existences in their daily lives.
Review of Literature
With technological development in decades, more people have started using the Internet to
connect and communicate with others. This trend also appears among older people. Under the
application of technology and the Internet, more people, especially old ones, are able to chat with
people they love across the long distance. Some published articles are convinced that the digital
communication approach can positively affect old people. There are already some researches have
shown that the Internet not only can promote social connectedness and interactions among people
but also can help address loneliness and social isolation in life, and they came up with 2 models to
illustrate the impacts (Findlay, 2003; Khosravi, Rezvani, & Wiewiora, 2016; Masi, et al., 2011). In
all, researchers find out that emotional support matters for the well-being of people’s health(Wong
& Waite, 2016). Yet, it still cannot be promised that Chinese old people can also share this good
“news”. Limited articles about the positive correlation ship between digital communication and
old people’s health could be found in the data base.
Moreover, though some old people have the chance to operate the devices skillfully, more senior
people are plaguing about it. According to other researchers, there are about 4 kinds of barriers
named aging-related barriers, individual and personal barriers, barriers related to the appliances,
and instructional barriers( Yazdani-Darki et al., 2019). The first one is about reduced physical
abilities and mental limitations. Second barrier is related to educational level and personal habits.
Other barriers regarding the appliances and instructions are easy to understand since some designs
of devices and steps of instruction did not take older people into account and, therefore, hard for
them to use.
However, previous studies cannot be considered conclusive because the interviewees are
foreigners and all of the studies were conducted outside of China. Moreover, studies related to
social connectedness and emotional support cannot depict the whole picture of Chinese older
adults. Hence, the existing research has problems representing Chinese older adults’ real situations.
This study will then focus on China mainland old people to further elaborate on the possibilities of
difficulties, for example, 还没写 seldom discussed by researchers and the relationship between
digital communication and its influence among aging adults.
Research Questions
Interview questions will be: “Please think about the biggest or most challenging problems in your
daily life? How does technology affect your life? What kinds of electrical appliances do you have
in your home? Do you use often them? Do you think there are any problems while using them? ”
Besides, questions regarding the social connections will be considered. For example, questions
like “Have you ever used any social-working apps? How do you feel when you using it?”Also,
probing questions like “Can you explain more?” “May you provide an example?” will be
conducted.
Methodology
Participants will be selected randomly on the list of old people aged 50+ that can be reached to
communicate and be interviewed. Around 10-15 participants will be recruited and have the
willingness to provide information of their own experiences. Also, any mental or physical illness
need to be informed before the interview. Interviews will be organized as face-to-face interview if
possible. Otherwise will be conducted via online. Hopefully all the interviews can be hold in a
quite place to last about 15-20 min when participants are ready. All of the interview will be
recorded by using a voice recorder. After the interview, the transcript of the recorded tape will be
typed in Microsoft Office Word and then to analyze which unit word is used most frequent to
observe the attitude.
Timeline
Literature
search
Literature
review
Designing data
Interview
Interview
analysis
Gather all the
information
Writing the
research
paper
10.16-11.16
10.16-11.20
11.20-11.25
11.23-12.05
collection
instrument
9.25-10.5
9.30-10.5
10.8-10.16
Significance of the research
This research aims to examine the difficulties of older adults aged 50 or above using
technology-advanced products underlying in their daily lives. At the same time, the impacts of
digital communication on social net-working or belongings will be investigated. Hoping that with
the help of this survey, we can find out some potential problems in time so as to make
improvements and provide a better condition for older adults in the future.
Reference
[1] Tak E, Kuiper R, Chorus A, Hopman-Rock M. Prevention of onset and progression of basic
ADL disability by physical activity in community dwelling older adults: A meta-analysis. Ageing
Res Rev 2013;12:329-38.
[2] Yusif S, Soar J, Hafeez‑Baig A. Older people, assistive technologies, and the barriers to
adoption: A systematic review. Int J Med Inform 2016;94:112‑6.
[3] Liu, T., Li, X. (2022). Exploring Older Adults’ Adoption of WeChat Pay: A Cognitive Lock-In
Perspective. In: Gao, Q., Zhou, J. (eds) Human Aspects of IT for the Aged Population. Design,
Interaction and Technology Acceptance. HCII 2022. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol
13330. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-05581-2_36
[4] Yazdani-Darki, M., Rahemi, Z., Adib-Hajbaghery, M., & Izadi, F. (1970, January 1).
Older adults' barriers to use technology in daily life: A qualitative study: Semantic scholar.
https://doi.org/10.1080/0144929X.2021.1882577
[5] Barbosa Neves, B., Franz, R., Judges, R., Beermann, C., & Baecker, R. (2019). Can digital
technology enhance social connectedness among older adults? A feasibility study. Journal of
Applied Gerontology, 38(1), 49-72. https://doi.org/10.1177/0733464817741369
ENG2001 Research Proposal Scoring Rubric
Student Number: _______________
Student Name: _______________
Marking Criteria
Performance
Language Use (30%)
•
Ideas clearly and cohesively presented;
•
Language appropriately impersonal, formal
and clear;
•
Appropriate use of vocabulary;
•
Accurate and varied sentence structures;
•
Correct grammatical choices and free of
basic grammar mistakes.
Content and Organization (60%)
•
Contains an appropriate title and clear
topic;
•
Reasonable background information
provided; topic well introduced;
•
Literature is connected to the topic and
research questions; critique of previous
A Range
B Range
C Range
D Range
F Range
[30-24]
[24-20]
[20-17]
[17-15]
< 15
22
A Range
B Range
C Range
D Range
F Range
[60-48]
[48-41]
[41-33.5]
[33.5-30]
< 30
research is evident;
45
•
Research questions reflect the purpose of
the study and are specifically stated;
•
Method is appropriate and clearly
described with sufficient details;
•
Timeline is reasonable;
•
Significance of the study well described.
Format & References (10%)
•
A Range
B Range
C Range
D Range
F Range
[10-8]
[8-7]
[7-5.5]
[5.5-5]
<5
The proposal follows assessment
instructions and APA7 format is
appropriate and consistent;
•
6
References are relevant and correctly
formatted, with in-text citations and the
reference list well matched.
Exemplary: A
D
Convincing: B
Acceptable: C
Unsatisfactory: F
Cut-off points:
A = 86
A- = 80
B+ = 76
B- = 68
C+ = 64
C = 60
D+ = 53
D = 50
F <50
B = 72
C- = 56
Final Grade: 73
COMMENTS:
Text highlighted in yellow: punctuation or formatting problem;
Needs Improvement:
Text highlighted in read: grammatical issue;
Text with an underline: spelling error.