The Study of Smartphone Usage Competency Assessment and Training for the Elderly.

This study aimed at developing an assessment of smartphone usage competence and constructing a training program for the elderly. A list of smartphone usage competencies with 34 items was defined through expert survey and panel. Based on the competence and previous literature, a training program and learning aids were designed in this study. There were 41 participants in our program. The results of self-administrated smartphone usage ability questionnaire indicated that all competencies were significantly improved after training. However, the results also demonstrated that some items were still difficult for the elderly to comprehend. Overall, this study provided a first exploration of defining smartphone usage competency and built a training program for the elderly. With strong suggestion, future mobile health (mHealth) services can follow this study to insure the smartphone usage ability of the elderly.