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Richard Pak, Margaux Price, Jason Thatcher. Age-Sensitive Design of Online Health Information: Comparative Usability Study. J Med Internet Res 2009 (Nov 16); 11(4):e45

Older adults' health maintenance may be enhanced by having access to online health information. However, usability issues may prevent older adults from easily accessing such information. Prior research has shown that ageing is associated with a unique pattern of cognitive changes, and knowledge of these changes may be used in the design of health websites for older adults.

The goal of the study was to examine whether older adults use of a health information website was affected by an alternative information architecture and access interface. Fifty younger adults (aged 18-23) and 50 older adults (aged 60-80) navigated a health information website, which was organized hierarchically in folders or used tags/keywords, to find answers to health-related questions while their performance was tracked. The researchers hypothesized that older adults would perform better in the tag-based health information website because it placed greater demands on abilities that remain intact with ageing (verbal ability and vocabulary).

The pattern of age-related differences in computer use was consistent with prior research with older adults. Older adults had been using computers for less time and used them less often than younger adults. Also consistent with the cognitive ageing literature, younger adults had greater spatial visualization and orientation abilities and a larger memory span than older adults, but older adults had greater vocabulary.

In the information search task, older adults performed worse than younger adults. However, there was a significant age/ web site type interaction indicating that while younger adults outperformed older adults in the hierarchical set up, there were no significant age-related differences in the tag-based set up, indicating that older adults performed as well as younger adults in this condition.

The study authors concluded that access to online health information is increasing in popularity and can lead to a more informed health consumer. However, usability barriers may differentially affect older adults. The results of the study suggest that the design of health information websites that take into account age-related changes in cognition can enhance older adults' access to such information. 

Click here for the full article: http://www.jmir.org/2009/4/e45/