Inequality in Internet Use across Areas and Older Adults in Taiwan

Context : Internet use has been viewed as one of the indicator of active aging. However, whether the differences of using Internet for older people due to area discrepancies or individual disparities influence Internet use for older people or not are not confirmed.

Objective : The study aims to examine the Internet use in different areas and other related individual factors for the middle-aged and older adults in Taiwan.

Design : The secondary data were from the 2013 middle-aged and older adults digital divide survey.

Setting and participants: The sample was drawn from the older population aged 50 years old or more. The interviews were collected over the phone in 2013 (n=7157). Descriptive analysis, Chi-square test, and logistic regression were applied.

Results : There were 43.0% of the participants using Internet. The participants who lived in the towns with higher digital development, female, younger, having higher education, with occupation related to technology/science/art, housewife/ students, and retirees, and those with higher incomes were more likely to use Internet. Different purposes for Internet users and barrier types for non-users were related to individual characteristics.

Discussion : Removal of the structural barriers and encouraging lifelong education in Internet use are suggested.