Chinese Older Adults’ Internet Use for Health Information

Abstract

Technological advancement benefits Internet users with the convenience of social connection and information search. This study aimed at investigating the predictors of Internet use to search for online health information among Chinese older adults. The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) was applied to examine the predictiveness of perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and attitudes toward Internet use on behavioral intention to search for health information online. Ninety-eight Chinese older adults were recruited from an academic institute for older people and community centers. Frequency of Internet use and physical and psychological health were also assessed. Results showed that perceived ease of use and attitudes significantly predicted behavioral intention of Internet use. The potential influences of traditional Chinese values and beliefs in health were also discussed.

Keywords

technology acceptance model Internet use Chinese older adults health information

The Internet not only provides computer users with a platform for information exchange, it also helps to promote health care such as service delivery and communication of health information (Czaja et al., 2006). Western countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom have incorporated the Internet into their health care delivery system (Campbell & Nolfi, 2005; Frost & Sullivan, 2004). Therefore, it is a rapidly growing trend to search for health care information online as it becomes more readily accessible to the general public (Baker, Wagner, Singer, & Bundorf, 2003). This technological advancement also provides an alternative gateway to meet the health care demands of the aging population, especially through the delivery of useful health information such as drug prescription, nutrition, and physical exercises at a lower administrative cost. Findings from recent research also suggest that seeking for health information is one of the major reasons of Internet use among older American adults (Crabb, Rafie, & Weingardt, 2011; Kaiser Family Foundation, 2005; Macias & McMillan, 2008). However, attitudes and beliefs may hinder older adults’ intention and adoption of Internet (Pan & Jordan-Marsh, 2010). This becomes a concern when the convenience of the online health care service and information is not adopted by those who need it the most. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to examine the factors influencing older people’s use of Internet for seeking health information by applying the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM).

Technology Acceptance Model

Older adults have become the fastest growing group of computer users and Internet consumers in the United States and China (Gatto & Tak, 2008; Hart, Cahparro, & Halcomb, 2008; Pan & Jordan-Marsh, 2010; Vuori & Holmlund-Rytkönen, 2005; Wagner, Hassanein, & Head, 2010). However, past studies on technology use seldom focus on older people (Escoffery et al., 2005; Gray, Klein, Noyce, Sesselberg, & Cantrill, 2005; Smith, 2008; Ye, 2005), and research on the factors that influence their Internet use for health information is even more limited. A comprehensive review of the literature on information technology adoption also pointed out that the majority of previous studies focused largely on working adults or students (Legris, Ingham, & Collerette, 2003), with only few studies have been done on older adults (e.g., Nayak, Priest, & White, 2010; Pan & Jordan-Marsh, 2010). Given that older and younger people differ in their goal orientation and motives (Carstensen, Isaacowitz, & Charles, 1999), which may in turn affect their behaviours, it remains largely unknown whether the existing theoretical models on Internet use are applicable to older people. The present study will fill in this gap in the literature by identifying some of the influencing factors of Internet use for seeking health information in older adults.

Different theoretical models such as theory of planned behavior, theory of reasoned action, or technology acceptance model have been developed for understanding the use of computer and Internet (Davis & Bagozzi, 1989; Holden & Karsh, 2010; Madsen, 2007). Technology acceptance model (TAM; Davis & Bagozzi, 1989), which was modified from the theory of reasoned action (Ajzen, 1991; Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980), has been widely used for studying technological behaviors such as computer and Internet use (Holden & Karsh, 2010; Singh, Fassott, Chao, & Hoffmann, 2006). As suggested by TAM, there are three major components affecting one’s behavioral intention to utilize a technology, including perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and attitude toward the technology. According to Davis (1989), perceived usefulness is defined as the belief about using the technology that would bring benefits to the user, whereas perceived ease of use refers to the belief about using the technology that involves little effort. Perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use are interrelated constructs, and both of them affect attitudes toward the technology as well as the behavioral intention to adopt the technology. The conceptual framework of TAM is depicted in Figure 1. The predictiveness of these three constructs on intention to utilize the technology has been consistently supported in past research (Adams, Nelson, & Todd, 1992; Davis, 1989; Davis & Bagozzi, 1989; Hung & Jen, 2002; Mathieson, 1991; Singh et al., 2006; Taylor & Todd, 1995).

Figure 1.

Theoretical framework of Technology Acceptance Model (TAM).

In addition to studies that had applied the TAM framework for understanding technology use in working adults and university students, other research has also supported the critical role of perceived ease of use in predicting Internet use among older people. For example, the study conducted in Japan has shown that the comfort of utilizing the computer was one of the important determinants of Internet use in older people (Umemuro, 2004). Another study conducted in Hong Kong found that older people were less likely to use Internet for seeking health information, unless they had adequate training or received technical support (Yan, 2010). In addition, unfriendly design of webpage can also diminish older people’s intention to use computer and the Internet (Huang, Hansen, & Xie, 2012). Pan and Jordan-Marsh (2010) also demonstrated that perceived ease of use was more predictive of older Chinese people’s intention of Internet use than that of younger people. These findings suggest that perceived ease of use is important in affecting older people’s intention and actual behavior of Internet use for seeking health information.

Perceived usefulness is also a key predictor of technology use in older adults (Heerink, Kröse, Evers, & Wielinga, 2008; Phang, Sutanto, & Kankanhalli, 2005). In particular, a study of Singaporean seniors demonstrated that perceived usefulness significantly predicted their intention to use the e-service (Phang et al., 2005). An experimental study on the older adults’ intention to use robot companion showed similar results with perceived usefulness as a significant predictor of behavioral intention (Heerink et al., 2008). Additionally, a focus group study concerning technology use of older adults revealed that perceived usefulness, in addition to ease of use, were reported as important factors in determining the willingness to use the technology (Mitzner et al., 2010). Despite these supportive figures, in a study assessing older adults’ perceived usefulness of seeking health information by the means of Internet and traditional media (such as television, magazine, or newspaper), no significant difference in perceived usefulness was found between Internet users and nonusers (Taha, Sharit, & Czaja, 2009). In addition, among the Internet nonusers, traditional means of information search were regarded as quicker and easier than that of the Internet. In light of these findings, it seems that perceived ease of use may be more important in determining whether older people seek health information online or not, especially those seniors without much experience on using the Internet.

There is a positive effect of attitudes on technology use. Specifically, individuals with positive attitudes toward the technology exhibit a greater intention to utilize that technology (Hu, Chau, Liu Sheng, & Tam, 1999; Hung & Jen, 2002; Kim, Chun, & Song, 2009; Yang & Yoo, 2004; Zhang, 2007). Although some researchers had ignored this component due to its mediating role (Adams et al., 1992; Bagozzi, Davis, & Warshaw, 1992), many researchers emphasized the direct impact of attitudes on the behavioral intention of technology adoption. Therefore the present study also assessed the direct effect of attitudes on Internet use for seeking health information.

Since the development of TAM, revised versions of the original model have been proposed by several researchers, including the United Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (Venkatesh, Morris, Davis, & Davis, 2003), TAM2 (Venkatesh & Davis, 2000), and TAM3 (Venkatesh & Bala, 2008). The revised TAM models extended the original model by adding antecedents of the three constructs (i.e., perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and attitudes toward the technology) to further explain the variance of behavioral intention of technology use. For instance, performance expectancy, voluntariness of use, and job relevance (Venkatesh & Bala, 2008; Venkatesh & Davis, 2000) have been added to the original TAM. However, most of the revised TAM models were especially designed for working adults and university students and have limited generalizability to older people (Lee, Kozar, & Larsen, 2003). Compared to working adults, older people’s use of Internet to search for health information is largely voluntary and unrelated to work purposes. Therefore the conceptual framework of the revised TAM models seems inappropriate for assessing their behavioral intention of Internet use for health information. The present study thus adopted the original TAM as the theoretical framework for predicting Internet use for seeking health information among older adults.

Positive Impact of Internet Use for Health Information

Seeking health information can be beneficial for physical and psychological health. Past studies that examined the relationship between online health information seeking behaviors and health revealed that those who used the Internet to search for health information about wellness had better physical health and lower health risks (Weaver et al., 2010) and reported better control, higher confidence, and more positive relationship with their physicians (Murray et al., 2003). Similarly, another study showed that obtaining health information from the Internet could promote more positive emotions, greater satisfaction, and fewer negative emotions (Botella et al., 2009). In addition, intervention studies have found that training programs on Internet use can enhance not only older people’s utility of the Internet to seek health information but also promote their psychological well-being, including lower anxiety toward computer use, higher sense of confidence, and higher self-efficacy (Chu, Huber, Mastel-Smith, & Cesario, 2009; Xie & Bugg, 2009). In light of these findings, it is anticipated that behavioral intention of Internet use for seeking health information helps to deliver useful health materials to older adults, which in turn contributes positively to their psychological and physical well-being. Therefore the present study also explored the possible linkage between the intention of seeking health information online and psychological and physical well-being.

The Present Study

In Hong Kong, the number of older people has gradually been increasing. According to the report of Hong Kong Census and Statistics Department (2010), it is projected that the population of adults aged 65 years or above will increase from 13% in 2010 to 28% in 2031. Among the older adults, only about 10% had prior experience in using the Internet (City University of Hong Kong, 2008). To promote Internet use for obtaining health information in older people, there is a pressing need to understand the factors that may influence their intention to use the Internet. The majority of prior studies that have applied TAM focus largely on job performance, while only a few of them examine the health care context (Holden & Karsh, 2010). The present study aims to advance the literature on TAM by investigating its theoretical framework for predicting Internet use for health information in Hong Kong Chinese older adults. The relationship between physical and psychological health and behavioral intention to use Internet for health information was also examined. Findings of the present study will provide directions for promoting Internet use in older individuals, especially for the delivery of health information.

Based on the literature summarized above, two hypotheses were generated for the present study:

Hypothesis 1: Perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and attitudes will be predictive of the behavioral intention to use the Internet to search for health information.

Hypothesis 2: Behavioral intention to use the Internet for health information will be positively associated with physical and psychological health of older adults.

Method

Participants and Procedure

The sample consisted of 98 older adults aged between 55 and 91 years (M = 64.93, SD = 5.81), with 50% females. In terms of education, 45.9% completed secondary school, 26.5% completed primary school, 20.4% completed matriculation, and 7.1% completed tertiary education. For marital status, 78.6% were married, 13.3% were widowed, and the remaining were single, separated, or divorced. On average, participants in this sample had experience of using the Internet for 7.36 years (SD = 6.74).

Human subject approval was obtained from the university before the implementation of the study. Participants were recruited from a local academic institute for older people and three community centers for senior citizens between January 2009 and January 2010. Invitation letters were first sent to the institution and community centers for approval. Participation in this study was voluntary. Older people who had prior experience in computer and Internet use were invited to join this study. Participants were first asked to sign the consent form and then completed a self-administrated questionnaire, with the assistance of a trained research staff. Each participant received a HKD20 (USD2.5) supermarket voucher as an appreciation for his or her participation in this study.

Measures

Three constructs of TAM

Perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness were assessed by the items developed by Davis (1989). We adapted the items by specifying Internet use for seeking health information online. There are 6 items measuring perceived usefulness, for example, “Internet is helpful to my health.” Five items were used to measure perceived ease of use, for instance, “It is easy to learn to use Internet for health information.” Four items on attitudes toward Internet use were adapted from Chen’s (2005) study and the sample item is “Using internet for health information is a wise idea.” All 15 items were rated on a 7-point Likert-type scale (1 = strongly disagree to 7 = strongly agree), with higher scores indicating a higher level of the construct. The reliability consistency of these three constructs was high, with Cronbach’s alphas as .89, .91, and .89 respectively.

Behavioural intention

Three items were adopted from the study of Armitage, Conner, Loach, and Willetts (1999) to assess one’s intention to search for health information on the Internet. A sample item of this scale is, “I plan to use the Internet to search for health information in the coming month.” Participants rated the three items on a 7-point Likert-type scale, ranging from 1 = definitely not to 7 = definitely. Higher scores indicate greater intention to use Internet for seeking health information. The Cronbach’s alpha was .99.

Physical and psychological health

The 12-item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-12; Ware, Kosinski, & Keller, 1996) and the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12; Goldberg & Williams, 1988) were used to measure physical health and psychological well-being respectively. The validated Chinese version of these two scales (Lam, Gandek, Ren, & Chan, 1998; Pan & Goldberg, 1990) was adopted. Scores of the SF-12 was computed based on the scoring algorithm reported in the user manual (Ware, Snow, Kosinski, & Gandek, 1993), with higher scores indicating better physical health. A 4-point scale was applied to assess the GHQ-12, with higher scores indicating poorer psychological health. The internal consistency of SF-12 and GHQ-12 was .73 and .69 respectively. To improve the reliability alpha of GHQ-12, the item “You felt that you are playing a useful part in things” was removed and the new alpha of 11 items was .72.

Demographic variables and covariates

Demographic variables including age, sex, and education were recorded. In addition, measures of subjective norms and past experience of Internet use have been shown to be positively correlated to Internet use (Lee et al., 2003; Pan & Jordan-Marsh, 2010; Venkatesh & Davis, 2000), thus they were also measured as covariates in the present study. Subjective norm refers to one’s perception that most of his or her important others believe he or she should perform a certain behavior (Venkatesh & Davis, 2000). The scale from Wu and Chen (2005) was adapted to measure subject norms about online health information seeking behavior. A sample item of this scale is “People who are important to me think that I should use the Internet to search for health information.” Participants rated the three items on a 7-point Likert-type scale (1 = definitely not to 7 = definitely). The reliability alpha was .95. Participants were also asked to report their past experience of computer and Internet use (number of years) and frequency of using the Internet (hours per week).

Results

Correlation Among Major Variables

To examine the associations among the three TAM constructs, behavioral intention, physical and psychological health, and demographic variables, correlation analyses were conducted. Results are summarized in Table 1. Male participants showed a higher behavioral intention (r = –.24, p < .05) and greater frequency of Internet use than their female counterparts (r = –.32, p < .05). Age was not significantly correlated with the three TAM constructs (perceived usefulness: r = .19; perceived ease of use: r = –.07; attitudes: r = .16, ns) and behavioral intention (r = –.06, ns). Education was found to be significantly correlated to perceived ease of use (r = .28, p < .01), behavioral intention (r = .33, p < .001), frequency of Internet use (r = .33, p < .05), and past experience of computer and Internet use (r = .49, p < .001). Sex and education were therefore statistically controlled in the following regression analysis. Moreover, all the three TAM constructs were significantly correlated with behavioral intention (perceived usefulness: r = .34; perceived ease of use: r = .57; attitudes: r = .47, p < .001), suggesting that participants with higher perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and positive attitudes toward Internet use reported a higher intention to use the Internet to search for health information. Physical health was positively related to frequency of Internet use (r = .27, p < .05), but not to behavioral intention to use the Internet for health information (r = .15, ns). Psychological health did not significantly correlate with behavioral intention (r = –.12, ns) and frequency of Internet use (r = –.07, ns).

Table 1.

Correlations Among Major Variables.

	M (SD)	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11
1 Sex	—	–
2 Age	64.93 (5.81)	−.20*	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
3 Education level	—	−.38***	−.22*
4 Perceived usefulness of Internet use	5.13 (1.15)	.09	.19	.05	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
5 Perceived ease of Internet use	5.00 (1.08)	−.12	−.07	.28**	.55***	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
6 Attitudes toward Internet use	5.68 (.97)	.01	.16	.09	.67***	.50***	–	–	–	–	–	–
7 Behavioural intention	5.86 (1.46)	−.24*	−.06	.33***	.34***	.57***	.47***	–	–	–	–	–
8 Psychological health (GHQ−12)	1.80 (.29)	.05	.09	−.08	−.07	−.32**	−.01	−.12	–	–	–	–
9 Physical health (SF−12)	72.66 (19.12)	−.12	.02	−.05	.03	.19	.05	.15	−.48***	–	–	–
10 Subjective norms	5.40 (1.14)	.04	.02	−.05	.28**	.21*	.53***	.17	−.02	.08	–	–
11 Frequency of Internet use (hours/week)	9.46 (11.96)	−.32*	−.07	.33*	−.12	.27*	.02	.36**	−.07	.27*	−.02	–
12 Past experience of computer and Internet use (years)	7.36 (6.74)	−.21*	−.27**	.49***	−.05	.19	−.04	.30**	−.16	.04	−.07	.31*

Note: *p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001.

Predictiveness of TAM on Internet Use

Hierarchical regression analysis was conducted to test the predictiveness of the three TAM constructs on behavioral intention to use the Internet for online health information. Block 1 consisted of sex, education, past experience of Internet use, and subjective norms as covariates, and Block 2 included the three constructs of TAM—perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and attitudes toward Internet use. Table 2 presents the results of the regression analysis. After controlling for the effects of the four covariates, perceived ease of use (β = .37, p < .001) and attitudes (β = .36, p < .01) were still significantly predictive of behavioral intention to use the Internet to search for health information. Perceived usefulness was not predictive of behavioral intention (β = –.06, ns). The TAM model explained 27% of the variance of behavioral intention to use the Internet to search for health information.

Table 2.

Hierarchical Regression on Behavioural Intention of Internet Use for Searching for Health Information.

	Behavioural intention
	Standardized Beta (β)
	Model 1	Model 2
Block 1
Sex	−.12	−.13
Education level	.20	.05
Past experience of computer and Internet use	.18	.17
Subjective norms	.20*	−.05
Block 2
Perceived usefulness of Internet use		−.06
Perceived ease of Internet use		.37***
Attitudes toward Internet use		.36**
R² change	.18**	.27***

Note: *p < .05. ** p < .01. *** p < .001.

To conclude, perceived ease of use and attitudes were predictive of behavioral intention of Internet use for health information. Behavioral intention did not significantly correlate with physical and psychological health. Therefore, the first hypothesis was partially supported and the second hypothesis was rejected.

Discussion

The present study adopted the theoretical framework of TAM to predict behavioral intention to use the Internet for seeking health information among Hong Kong Chinese older adults. Specifically, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and attitudes were hypothesized to be predictive of older people’s behavioral intention of Internet use. It was also hypothesized that there would be a positive association between behavioral intention and physical and psychological health. Results of the first hypothesis are generally consistent with previous research (e.g., Holden & Karsh, 2010; Singh et al., 2006) and supported the predictiveness of TAM on behavioral intention of Internet use to search for health information in older people. As shown in the results of correlation analyses, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and attitudes toward Internet use were intercorrelated and these three constructs were also associated with behavioral intention as posited by TAM. Regression analysis also revealed that perceived ease of use and attitudes were significantly predictive of behavioral intention to use the Internet to search for health information. Specifically, when older people do not encounter difficulties in using the Internet and possess positive attitudes toward Internet use, they show greater willingness to seek health information from the Internet, whereas perceived usefulness of searching for online health information is relatively less important to older adults in determining their Internet use. Consistent with these findings, past research has also found that older people determine the adoption of mobile phone largely based on usability rather than practicality (Mallenius, Rossi, & Tuunainen, 2007).

Inconsistent with previous research (Lee et al., 2003; Ma & Liu, 2004), perceived usefulness was not a significant predictor of behavioral intention of Internet use in the present study. Although there was a positive correlation between perceived usefulness and behavioral intention, the effect of perceived usefulness on behavioral intention was reduced when perceived ease of use was included in the regression model. This discrepancy may be explained by the nature of the sample and the uniqueness of the cultural values among Chinese people. The present study investigated Internet use in a group of older adults, who were seldom the focus in past research on technology use. Compared with the previous Western samples (Chau & Hu, 2002; Lee et al., 2003), the education level of the current sample of Chinese older people was much lower. Results of correlation analyses showed that education was positively correlated with perceived ease of use, suggesting that less educated older adults were more likely to find it difficult to search for health information online. Similar to Mallenius et al.’s (2007) study mentioned above, perceived ease of use seems to be more influential in determining older Chinese people’s intention of Internet use for obtaining health information online.

In addition, this inconsistency may also be explained by the cultural values of Chinese people. In traditional Chinese wisdom, health is not just a state free from illness, but a pursuit of harmony and balance between the human body and the environment (Teeguarden, 2000). To maintain the balance between “Yin” & “Yang,” “hot” & “cold” and attain a radiant health state (i.e., an all-around healthy state, not just without illness, but also well-balanced between forces), Chinese people greatly emphasize on food intake, medicine, and tonic supplements (Li, 1995). However, there is no single and uniform way to achieve the holistic health and the effectiveness of many traditional recipes and Chinese therapies are still subject to debate. This uncertainty may also be applied to health information available on the Internet. Older Chinese people may try their best to gather information available to them in a convenient way, such as from the Internet, TV, or magazines; while the trustworthiness and the usefulness of the information is less likely to be a concern. In addition, the traditional Chinese culture also highly values personal effort and believes that it is an essential element that leads to success in all aspects of life, including career and health domains (Kuo & Chang, 2004). Therefore, to maintain a healthy body, they tend to acquire all relevant information and recipes available in various sources, and thus the Internet is only one of those sources. Such beliefs in health among Chinese people might help to explain why perceived usefulness of the information was not as important as perceived ease of use in determining older people’s intention to use the Internet.

Contradictory to previous studies (McCloseky, 2006) in which age correlated significantly with the TAM constructs, the present study only found a significant relationship between age and past experience of Internet use. However, as suggested by Gietzelt (2001) and Kooij, De Lange, Jansen, and Dikkers (2008), chronological age may not be the most appropriate indicator of age as compared to functional age, subjective age, or psychosocial age in understanding technology use among older adults. In addition, the distribution of age in the current sample was skewed to the group of young-old adults, in which more than 80% of the participants were aged below 70 years, making the age effect on the TAM constructs less profound as those shown in past studies (McCloskey, 2006). Therefore, future studies should adopt a longitudinal design and recruit an age-stratified sample to better understand the effects of age on the intention of searching online health information.

It was also surprising to find that there was no significant relationship between behavioral intention and physical and psychological health. A possibility may be that the present study did not specify the nature of health information to be sought from the Internet. According to Weaver and colleagues (2010), health is positively related to the search for wellness information and negatively related to the search for illness information. Since this study did not make a distinction between these two types of search, the effects may have been cancelled out by each other and the finding was not significant as a result. Future studies assessing different types of health information search may help to address such inconsistency. While there was no relationship between behavioral intention and physical and psychological health, a significant positive association was found between frequency of Internet use and physical health, suggesting that older adults who use the Internet more frequently possess a better physical health. This is consistent with previous research on the positive correlation between Internet use and well-being of older people (Shapira, Barak, & Gal, 2007; Xie, 2007).

Nevertheless, supplementary to other health care services, using the Internet to search for health information is an easy and useful way for older people to meet their health needs and concerns. This study has shown that perceived ease of use is a determining factor in predicting old people’s Internet use, suggesting that obstacles and difficulties should be reduced to promote Internet use in older adults. As demonstrated in previous studies, the current design of computer and webpages may hinder older people’s Internet use, such as small font size or language of web materials (Johnson & Kent, 2007). Thus having an age-friendly design of webpages definitely helps to facilitate Internet use in older people (Adams, Stubbs, & Woods, 2005). To minimize hindrances caused by limited computer knowledge or resources, training programs specifically designed for older people should be promoted in the community to improve their computer skills and attitudes toward Internet usage (Keogh, 2009).

A few limitations should be taken into account when interpreting the results of this study. First, more than half of participants were recruited through an academic institute for the aged, thus the current sample on average possessed higher education level as compared to the general population of older people in Hong Kong. Given that education was related to perceived ease of use and behavioral intention, future studies should include a larger representative sample of older adults with different education levels to have a more in-depth investigation of TAM on Internet use for seeking health information. Second, this study recruited older adults who had prior experience of computer and Internet use. It may be possible that older adults who have no prior experience with the Internet determine their need to search for health information online based on a different set of attitudes and beliefs. Future studies should include individuals with varying degrees of prior experience to provide a holistic view of older adults’ Internet use. Besides, the measure of frequency of Internet use in the present study was not only limited to searching for health information; future studies should adopt a more specific measure to understand the linkage between behavioral intention and actual behaviors. Finally, results of this study are cross-section and no causal relationship can be drawn. Future study should adopt a longitudinal design to investigate the impact of Internet use on physical and psychology health of older people across time.

To conclude, this study examined the predictive factors of older Chinese adults’ Internet use to search for health information by applying the theoretical framework of TAM. As older adults are often neglected in the development of new technology, the present study especially focused on their special needs and concerns when using the Internet. Different from previous studies of TAM that mainly focused on the context of work and performance, the present study applied this model in the health domain. In addition, findings from the present study also showed that culture may play a role in affecting Internet use among older people, which provides meaningful directions for the promotion of Internet use and intervention programs.

Footnotes

Authors’ Note

Human subject approval was obtained from the University’s College Research Ethics Subcommittee before implementation of the study.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Author Biographies

Carmen K. M. Wong, MSc, BSocSc, works in the Department of Applied Social Studies at City University of Hong Kong as a research associate. She completed her MSc in health psychology at the University of Nottingham. Her research interests are etiology of illness, health promotion, and education.

Dannii Y. Yeung, PhD, is an assistant professor in the Department of Applied Social Studies at City University of Hong Kong. Her research interests are aging and work, retirement adjustment, social relationship across the life span, and emotion regulation.

Henry C. Y. Ho, MSc, BA, is a PhD. candidate in the Department of Applied Social Studies at the City University of Hong Kong. He received his BA from Simon Fraser University and MSc from University of Exeter. His research interests are intergenerational conflict in the workplace, emotion regulation, and work stress.

Kin-Po Tse has completed his BSocSc from City University of Hong Kong. His research interest is Internet use in older adults.

Chun-Yiu Lam, BSocSc, works as a research assistant in City University of Hong Kong. His research interests are technology adoption in older adults and psychomusicology.

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