Posts Tagged ‘seniors and computers’

Study on Exercise is First to Focus on Older Adults

Tuesday, September 15th, 2009

By Inger Rarick, Co-Founder FamiliLink

A new study this month posted by the AMA (American Medical Association) shows that older adults who continue or begin to do ANY amount of exercise appear to live longer and have a lower risk of disability. The study spanned over 15 years and included almost 2000 participants. Some findings included: “Physical activity may delay the spiral of decline that begins with inability to perform daily activities and continues through illness and death by improving cardiovascular fitness, slowing loss of muscle mass, reducing fat, improving immunity and suppressing inflammation.” Click here to see the study.

seniorwithweightWhat I find most significant is that institutions are FINALLY investing money and resources into doing studies on older adults. Almost all of the studies in the past conducted on the benefits and/or harms of exercise have focused on people under the age of 65. This is the first significant studies about how exercise can impact the well-being of older adults.

Certainly this is a step in the right direction. As our population ages (by 2020 there will be 54M older adults…compared to today’s 35M older adults) it is clear that resources must be spent TODAY on learning more about our aging population and what we can do to improve health and well being as we age. The next step is to start investing in technologies and services that will truly impact older adults. At FamiliLink, we know that staying physically active, socially connected, and cognitively stimulated are key success factors to happy aging. With FamiliLink, it is easy to have your older loved one “digitally connected” so you can provide support using the computer and internet. Imagine what you can do once your loved one is “connected”… share digital content (photos and videos), help them with reminders for medications, exercise schedules, important appointments, play brain games together with them and so much more.
I hope institutions continue to do age-specific studies such as the one above, then perhaps investors and corporations will begin to focus on this generation.

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Seniors will Always Face Challenges when Adopting new Technologies

Friday, April 10th, 2009

By Inger Rarick, VP of marketing and co-founder FamiliLink

I am always surprised when I talk to people about how seniors have challenges using computers, that people feel that this challenge is a short term issue with seniors today because they did not grow up with computers. However, our experience at FamiliLink and other studies have shown that older adults will continue to struggle with technology and computers for a number of different reasons.

mancomputer3One, there will always be a technology divide…today many seniors DO use computers for traditional email, health care research, and travel planning. However.. they struggle with websites that offer anything new or different. This means when innovative sites like Twitter, Facebook, Bebo, Linkedin, etc start to appear, our older friends and family do not readily adopt to these new social network paradigms. Given some time, yes…they will probably start to adopt as we all start to grow up and become more use to these new sites…but trust me, there will always be more new sites and new technologies which the younger generations will be using faster than than the older generations. I have a number of friends who are now using Facebook (yes we are all over 40 years old) and their younger teen children who had been active on Facebook now no longer use Facebook. I don’t blame them…once your mom and dad join your social network site, it is no longer cool.

The second reason this challenge will always exists is because of inevitable age-related condition. Sorry folks…we are all aging. Along with aging comes poor eye-site, arthritis, cognitive limitations, and more. These conditions can significantly impact the way we use computers. We all seem to understand that one day we may need bifocal glasses, we may need to set up our home so that it is easier to get around, we may even need to use a cane, we also will probably start driving with a little more caution, etc. I mean, if these daily activities are impacted as we age (because we can no longer see as clearly and no longer think quite as quickly as before) why on earth would our ability to navigate new technologies and the internet not also be impacted.

To believe that this problem is just short term is very short-sighted indeed. At FamiliLink, we believe these challenges will always exists and therefore we are developing solutions that will support seniors as innovation and technologies continue to evolve.

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