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As people get older, they change biologically. Biological aging is unavoidable as the aging process, both physically and internally, progresses throughout the lifespan (Magalhães,

2011). The biological process of aging is similar for everyone. This includes changes in vision, hearing or motor skills which tend to be more noticeable at the age of 45 years (Hawthorn, 2000). Victor et al. (2007) highlighted the need to explore the varied characteristics of older adults, especially when conducting a study with them. They noted that as part of the aging process, older adults might have different needs, and wants at different stages of their life. In a review paper on older adults and technology, Arch (2010) suggested age associated decline that can affect older adults in using technology includes declining in cognitive, vision, hearing, and physical ability. The next section will review the changes that people experience as they age and the consequences of these changes in using technology.

Cognitive abilities

There is a considerable literature on the cognitive abilities of older adults. Verhaeghen (2011) defined attention as how the mind can be concentrated towards a particular situation. Verhaeghen (2011) noted that dementia, including Alzheimer’s diseases and vascular dementia are common causes of cognitive impairment in older adults. The Alzheimer’s Society (2017) reported that in the UK, 808, 000 older adults are living with dementia. The Alzheimer’s Society (2017) also reported that dementia increases with age with only 1 person in 14 for those aged 65 to 80 years, to 1 person in 6 for those over 80 to 95 years, to 1 person in 3 for those over 95 years.

Two longitudinal studies Wilson et al. (2002) and Rabbitt et al. (2004) found that, on average, as age increases, cognitive abilities decreases. In both studies, the participants had to do a number of cognitive tests, such as memorising sequences of numbers, arithmetic, story retention, and logic questions. In both studies the authors did not suggest the age when cognitive abilities start to decline, but their findings show that little difference in abilities between age 60 years and 70 years is, but the gap gets wider as older adults enter their 80s.

In related to completing computer tasks, previous research with 10 years apart by Chadwick-Dias et al. (2003) and Findlater et al. (2013), has shown that the older adults have slower cognitive process, poorer attention, and decreases in memory capacity in comparison with younger adults. For these studies, cognitive abilities are often measured by the time taken to complete tasks. Findlater et al. (2013) did a cross-sectional study with

20 young (aged 19 to 51 years) and 20 older (aged 61 to 86 years) adults. 90% of the participants were daily computer users. 60% of the young and 45% of the older participants were daily touchscreen users. The authors measured the speed taken of pointing, dragging, crossing, and steering using a mouse and a touchscreen. They found in all eight tasks, the older participants took, on average, twice the time as the younger group.

Visual and hearing abilities

Literature has shown that as we age, our sensory abilities start to decline. The Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB, 2015) reports that more than 2 million older adults in the UK have some form of sight loss which affects their daily life. The prevalence of sight loss increases with age. The RNIB (2015) also reports, of the 2 million, 15 percent are of older adults age 65 years or over. The number increases to 35 percent for those over 75 years and 50 percent for those over 90 years.

Action on Hearing Loss (2016) reports that 8.3 million older adults in the UK have some form of hearing loss. Action on Hearing Loss (2016) also reports that the hearing loss increases as age increases. They reported hearing loss affects 42 percent of people over 50 years old and increases to 71 percent of older adults over 70 years old.

Problems with visual perception are mainly related to poor visual acuity (Bergman &

Rosenhall, 2001), either for both distance or near vision, contrast sensitivity, adapting to glare, and colour vision (West et al., 2002). Bergman and Rosenhall (2001) did a longitudinal study with originally 973 older adults. They measured the visual and hearing tests three times at age 70, 81-82 and 88 years. The threshold to define hearing impairment was 30 db HL (decibels Hearing Level). Visual ability was assessed with best-corrected visual acuity. It was not clear in the paper whether they assessed the older adults with distance or near vision. In terms of visual ability, they found that the failure rate increases as age increases. They found that majority older adults at age 70 years still have normal vision abilities. At age 81-82 years, 48.5% of the older adults had normal vision. At age 88 years, it was only 25.5%. In terms of hearing ability, at age 70 years, 72.5% of the older adults had normal hearing. At age 81-82 years, it was only 21.5%. At age 88 years, it was 19%. The authors found that at age 70 years, better hearing was correlated with better eyesight. However, in the remaining two tests, there were no correlations between the vision and hearing abilities.

There is no specific research showed the impact of vision and hearing loss due to ageing affected using technology or specifically in using mobile technology. However, older adults in Demiris et al. (2004) focus group study highlighted their vision loss and hearing impairment as the main reasons that hinders them to using technology at home. Dickinson et al. (2005) also reported that sight loss is the main reason that hinders older adults to use technology due to having difficulty in reading small text and problem with the screen contrast.

In terms of hearing loss due to ageing, older adults are often associated with slow auditory processing and reduced hearing in noisy environments (Bergman & Rosenhall, 2001). To overcome this, older adults often demand for higher frequency (Cruickshanks et al., 1998;

Gopinath et al., 2009). Although hearing impairment is not considered as a barrier to using technologies (Hanson, 2001), but with newer designs of technologies including sound effects, this might change.

Physical abilities

Other than being able to see and hear, having the ability to do things physically is important to being independent in old age (Priestley, 2012). The effects of aging can make older adults’ physical movements slower and more restricted than those of the younger people (Magalhães, 2011). This can be in conjunction to having multiple impairments such as poor vision and poor hearing (Hawthorn, 2000). Arch (2010) noted that arthritis and Parkinson’s Disease are the main ageing diseases that affect the changes in physical abilities. The NHS (2016a) estimated there are 10 million people in the UK suffering from arthritis. Osteoarthritis is the common type of arthritis among older adults (Arthritis Research UK, 2017). Osteoarthritis occurs when the bones become quite fragile, which is a natural ageing process.

Related to mobile technology use, numerous studies have shown that older adults struggle to perform tasks that require them to steer an object in a limited area (Findlater et al., 2013), or to make gestures that require using two fingers, for example rotating and resizing (Piper et al., 2010). Other researchers found that older adults struggle to tap and drag objects (Leonardi et al., 2010) or typing using a built-in keyboard (Jayroe & Wolfram, 2012). Jayroe and Wolfram (2012) also found that older adults have difficulty regarding

the sensitivity of a touchscreen, especially in controlling their hand movements. In addition, Hawthorn (2000) found that older adults struggle to move or click using a mouse.

A study by Waycott et al. (2012) had participants who had concerns with the weight of an iPad.

In all of the tasks listed in above, the authors focused on the movement of fingers or hands.

This is because the main interaction with interactive technologies, particularly mobile technologies, is via the fingers and hands. The main objectives of these studies were to engage older adults using a touchscreen (Waycott et al., 2012), to compare their performance with a touchscreen and a desktop (Findlater et al., 2013; Jayroe & Wolfram, 2012), and to explore the accessibility of a touchscreen for older adults (Leonardi et al., 2010; Piper et al., 2010). To have a variety of types of older adults, the authors included a range of older adults per study, with the age range of 20 years. Some studies included participants with arthritis or severe hand tremors (Jayroe & Wolfram, 2012; Piper et al., 2010; Waycott et al., 2012). In the study by Leonardi et al. (2010), some participant commented on having larger fingers, thus, preferred using a stylus to complete the requirement tasks to explore the accessibility of a touchscreen.

This section discussed the definition of older adults and the characteristics of older adults.

This section also included the demographics of older adults particularly in the UK. The statistics show that the older adult population is increasing in a fast pace compared to other age groups. The next section will discuss malnutrition, a health issue for this age group in the UK (AgeUK, 2017; Russell & Elia, 2014)