Aging, PEOU, and adoption of communication technology

Purpose: Electronic communication technology can facilitate communications with family, friends and health-care professionals and deliver products and services that can significantly raise quality of life for the aging population. However, technology use by older Americans lags behind that of younger Americans. This paper aims to explore physiological decline and cognitive decline as underlying causes or antecedents that may uniquely contribute to predicting perceived ease of use (PEOU) and actual use of technology over and beyond chronological age among older adults. Design/methodology/approach: Data were collected by University of Michigan’s 2012 Health and Retirement Study from a national sample of 1,686 respondents age 50 or older. Data were analyzed with the Mplus software package. The conceptual framework was estimated with a path analysis model. Findings: Results indicated that physiological decline (vision, hearing and health) and cognitive decline (memory) made a significant unique contribution to predicting PEOU and actual use of technology above and beyond chronological age. Implications for marketing technology-based products and services to older Americans were discussed. Originality/value: This research has identified and empirically tested how variability in physiological decline and cognitive decline could uniquely predict use of communication technologies, directly and indirectly via PEOU, above and beyond chronological age.