PROGRESS IN GEOGRAPHY ›› 2016, Vol. 35 ›› Issue (9): 1167-1176.doi: 10.18306/dlkxjz.2016.09.011

• Articles • Previous Articles    

Impact of ICT on community satisfaction among elderly:The case of Suojin Community in Nanjing City

Hui CHEN, Feng ZHEN*()   

  1. School of Architecture and Urban Planning, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China
  • Received:2016-04-01 Revised:2015-07-01 Online:2016-09-20 Published:2016-09-20
  • Contact: Feng ZHEN E-mail:zhenfeng@nju.edu.cn
  • Supported by:
    Foundation: National Natural Science Foundation of China, No.41571146

Abstract:

With the rapid development of information and communication technology, the number of "netizens" is increasing. There is also a tendency of rapid growth of netizens aged 60 and above. Information and Communication Technology has increasingly become a significant part of social and economic life in today's society, deeply influencing people's behavior. In the context of accelerating aging of the Chinese population and the rapid development of smart elderly care, how to use information and communication technology to improve elderly's quality of community life is becoming a hot topic in geography and urban planning studies. This study chose Suojin Community—the first smart community in Nanjing City—as empirical research case. Suojin Community has actively engaged in information technology development. This study explores the relationship between information and communication technology and elderly's community satisfaction. A survey was conducted in Suojin Community from September to December 2015 by the Nanjing University research group, resulting in 212 valid samples that were later applied in a structural equation modeling. The questionnaire mainly includes four sets of questions on respondents' personal attributes, level of personal use of ICT, social support, and community satisfaction. The analysis shows that greater diversity of information and communication device possession and usage led to more frequent network activities. Elderlies with higher level of education and willingness to use the Internet are more likely to use more information and communication devices and have higher frequency of network activities. Information and communication technology promotes interactions with family and neighbors through social networking activities, such as chatting on QQ and WeChat, which enhance elderly's social support and community satisfaction. Social support has greater impact than the built environment on elderly's community satisfaction. Therefore, an effective path to improve elderly's quality of community life is to strengthen contacts with family and neighbors by information and communication technology. The result has important implications for the development of smart community and smart elderly care. Using information and communication technology to combine social networking with emotional support and social resources provision is the future direction of community development research.

Key words: elderly, Information and Communication Technology (ICT), structural equation model, social support, community satisfaction, Suojin Community in Nanjing