New Information and Communication Technologies and The Elderly: Practice, Problems and Potential

最近的政府报告(Costello 2002；2004；生产力委员会，澳大利亚政府，2005)指出，人口老龄化是澳大利亚面临的一项重大挑战，在接下来的25年里，老龄人口的数量和占总人口的比例都将翻一番。这一挑战的一个要素是维持和提高澳大利亚老年人的福祉，同时控制为他们提供支助服务的成本。信息和通信技术的新发展有可能促进实现这两个目标，但对澳大利亚老年人和未来30年将步入老年的人采用信息和通信技术的情况知之甚少。

Recent government reports (Costello 2002; 2004; Productivity Commission, Australian Government 2005) indicate that demographic ageing which will see a doubling of the aged population both numerically and as a proportion of the total population in the next quarter century presents a substantial challenge to Australia. One element of that challenge is to maintain and enhance the wellbeing of older Australians while controlling the costs of providing them with support services. New developments in ICT have the potential to facilitate achieving these twin goals but little is known of the take up of ICT among older Australians and those who will enter the older ages over the next three decades.