Investigation of actual conditions of usage of Information Technology, electronic devices and development of strategies to improve use by elderly.

使用信息技术和电子设备被认为可以提高人们的生活质量。本研究的目的是澄清使用这类设备的实际情况，调查影响老年人使用设备的因素，促进老年人使用信息技术和电子产品。我们对1169名社区老年人的数据进行了分析。首先，将信息技术和电子设备分为三类：信息技术和数字设备、传统家用电器和准家用电器+自动取款机。其次，除年龄和性别外，受教育程度、经济状况、个性特征(开放性)和以问题为中心的应对方式对设备的使用也有影响。第三，我们成功地将老年人分为五类：“先进”、“发展中”、“停滞”、“保守”和“不使用”。每组不同的背景特征表明，需要根据个体特征采取几种不同的方法来增加老年人对设备的使用。

Using IT and electronics devices are believed to increase the QOL of the people. The purposes of the present study were to clarify the actual situation with regard to the use of such devices and to investigate factors which have influence on the use of devices in the elderly, to promote the use of IT and electronics in that population. We analyzed the data for 1169 community-dwelling elderly people. First, the IT and electronic devices were classified into three categories: "IT and digital devices", "Classical household appliances" and "Quasi-household appliances+ATM". Secondly, in addition to age and sex, educational attainment, economical status, personality trait (Openness), and problem focused coping style had influence on the use of devices. Thirdly, we succeeded in classifying the elderly people into five groups : "advanced", "developing", "stagnation", "conservative" and "non-use". Different background characteristic in each group indicate that several different approaches based on the individual characteristic are needed to increase the use of devices in elderly people.