Exploring the elders’ information needs on home-based care: A community service perspective

Abstract

It is predicted that by 2030 China will become a country with the highest degree of population aging in the world. Information-based eldercare pattern is the direction for future development of eldercare. Through construction of a hierarchical model of the elders’ information needs, in-depth analysis of their contents, and questionnaire survey with the elders, it has been found that many items of information needs are highly recognized by the elders. Cross statistical analysis indicated that information needs in both safety and emotional categories showed significant differences between the gender groups, while those in both physiological and self-actualization categories showed significant differences between the age groups. According to the research results, recommendation is put forward in the end of the paper on design and construction of information-based eldercare platform to help the elder users promote their user experience and information skills.