TITLE:
Analyzing Information Needs of Elderly People: A Survey in Chinese Rural Community
AUTHORS:
Chunfang Zou, Ping Zhou
KEYWORDS:
Information Needs, Elderly People, Chinese Rural Community
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.2 No.9,
August
26,
2014
ABSTRACT: A survey about the information needs of
elderly people could find out the information required to address the needs of
the aged in a community. Analyzing data collected from 600 elderly people through
field investigation with a questionnaire in a rural community in central China,
the results show that the preferred information format of the majority of aged people
is audio and/or visual information product, especially audio product. Most of the
aged people stated that they were in need of healthy and medical non-educational
audio information products. The survey maybe lead to improved and expanded information
services for respondents who are short of such services, including Public broadcasting
services, extending the audiovisual collection, loaning audiovisuals, religious
faith audiovisuals and others providing needed information to them. In summary,
this paper assembles views on what the elderly people currently need to be helped
by both practitioners and researchers in the elderly people services domain.