Mobile Communication Technologies and Their Effects on Elderly, A Case Study of Diabetes type 2 Elderly

Abstract: Ageing population’s increasing ratio is alarming and the needs of elder persons are increasing day by day. Fast increase in ageing population means the growing of chronic diseases as well. Diabetes type 2 is a chronic disease which commonly found in elder persons. Technological innovations in Health care sector playing an enormous role in improving the healthy life of all humans. Use of latest technologies in perceiving the health services are now common. Each technology in this era is facilitating in many ways, same is the case with mobile phone which can provide multiple functionalities for the betterment of elderly life. The focus of this study is to investigate the reasons of less use of mobile phone in elderly life and what other functionalities elderly want in coming mobile phones. The results of this study would be supportive in understanding the problems of diabetes type 2 patients in using mobile phone. This study would also be helpful for the manufacturers in developing the mobile phones according to the needs of elder persons. The analysis of this research work depends on three study stages. It starts from the literature review, in which we learned the effects of diabetes on elder persons. It also includes the usability features of mobile phone which necessary for implementing the future functionalities with elderly perspective. On the basis of literature review we designed the questionnaire and prepare the interviews. Interviews were conducted with two health care professionals and questionnaires with the citizens of county of Blekinge. We believe that our analysis will be helpful for both elderly and mobile phone manufacturing companies and they will also be supportive in increasing the quality of life of elderly.