A team of researchers led by Dr. Wendy Young, Canada Research Chair in Healthy Aging, has been funded to investigate the possibilities for sustained and effective computer use by older people in Newfoundland and Labrador.

The three-year project has received funding of $225,000 over three years from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. The project is titled “Sustaining Information Technology use by older people to promote autonomy and independence: Newfoundland and Labrador Cohort.”  The funding is the Canadian contribution to an international effort led by a team in the U.K.

Dr. Young said Canada and the U.K. are both reporting increasing numbers of older people who are digitally engaged.

“Individuals are retiring with computer skills and many older non-users are becoming users. However, as people age they have more difficulty using the mouse, reading small fonts, and so on. Also they are reluctant to buy new computers every few years.” 

The Newfoundland team will use methods developed at Loughborough University, under Dr. Leela Damodaram, to investigate computer use here and to then develop solutions that will work for the people of Newfoundland and Labrador.

The Newfoundland team is a collaborative effort among community and University groups. The team is comprised of the Seniors Resource Centre and Saint Elizabeth Health Care as well as Memorial researchers Wendy Young (joint School of Nursing and Community Health and Humanities), Stephen Bornstein (NL Centre for Applied Health Research), Veeresh Gadag (Community Health and Humanities), Gerard Farrell and George Klima (eHealth Research Unit), Lan Gien (School of Nursing), Stephen Tomblin (Political Science) and Jared Clarke (NLCAHR Healthy Aging Research Program Post-Doctoral Award), as well as the Health Research Unit and the Nursing Research Unit.