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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Carers and the digital divide
— factors affecting internet use among carers in the UK | | Author(s) | Clare Blackburn, Janet Read, Nathan Hughes |
| Journal title | Health & Social Care in the Community, vol 13, no 3, May 2005 |
| Pages | pp 201-210 |
| Source | www.blackwellpublishing.com/hsc |
| Keywords | Informal care ; Information technology ; Computers ; Usage [services] ; Cross sectional surveys ; Devon ; West Sussex ; Surrey. |
| Annotation | The 2-year Carers Online project was undertaken by a partnership of three local authorities (Devon, West Sussex and Surrey) with Carers UK. This paper presents data from the postal survey sent to 3,014 adult carers examining use of the Internet and associated factors. A comparison of this data with national data on carers suggests some under-representation of those who had been caring for long periods and those with substantial caring responsibilities. Bivariate analyses identified patterns of Internet use and socio-demographic and socio-economic factors and associated caring circumstances. Half of all carers had previously used the Internet; of this group, 61% had used it once a week or more. Factors significantly associated with having previously used the Internet were carer's age, employment status, housing tenure and numbers of hour per week spent caring. The study suggests that a significant number of carers may not currently be Internet users, and that age, gender, socio-economic status and caring responsibilities shape Internet use in particular ways. Given the targets set by government for the development of online services, the digital divide among carers needs to be tackled, along with the development of other services and information systems that meet the needs of those who do not access the Internet. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-050518209 A |
| Classmark | P6: UVB: 3O: QLD: 3KB: 8DE: 8WE: 8SY |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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