Attitudes and Use of Health Information and Communication Technology Among Older Adults’ in Iceland - Changes from 2019 to 2022

The paper examined adoption of a national healthcare ICT system as well as experience of the possibilities to adopt ICT, among Icelanders’ aged 56 years and older. Data gathered in 2019 and in 2022 were compared to reveal possible changes during this period. The following research questions were asked: (1) How motivated are people towards health information? (2) What opinions do people have about the usefulness of ICT for obtaining information about their own health? (3) How has the adoption of the national healthcare system to seek information in relation to people’s own health, and about various other health issues, developed in the period 2019 to 2022? (4) How has peoples experience of adopting ICT, and receiving help at using it, developed in the period 2019 to 2022? Random samples were used, and data gathered by telephone surveys and internet surveys from 173 people in 2019 and 214 in 2022. For each year the datasets were merged. The total response rate was 39% in 2019 and 45% in 2022. The main findings are that there was a positive development in the use of the healthcare system for being in contact with health professionals and to gain information tailored to people’s health. Although people were in general motivated towards health information, the use of the system for information about healthy living and other health issues remained extremely low in the period. In 2019 the options for adopting ICT were not considered satisfactory but an important change happened in the period as majority of participants considered their possibilities for it to be good in 2022. They, furthermore, believed that using ICT made it easier for them to get information related to their own health.