A Study On The Influencing Factors Of The Elderly’s Willingness To Obtain Information Related To The COVID-19

The outbreak of the COVID-19 has brought a huge impact on the whole world.The elderly are relatively weak in physical function and immune system,and their ability to acquire and perceive information is weak.Therefore,the elderly are more acutely and obviously affected by the epidemic in their daily travel and their own health,so they need to receive more attention.The purpose of this study is to explore the influencing factors of the elderly’s willingness to obtain health information in public health events represented by the novel coronavirus epidemic,and then analyze how to help the elderly to improve their willingness to obtain the health information they need in time,and improve their health management ability and media literacy through obtaining health information,which is crucial for the elderly to enjoy their old age.Therefore,it is of great practical significance to study this field.In order to explore what factors in public health events represented by the novel coronavirus epidemic will affect the elderly’s willingness to obtain information related to the novel coronavirus epidemic,two research methods,questionnaire survey and nonparticipatory observation,were adopted in this study.Firstly,through observation,we can understand the difficulties encountered by the elderly in various aspects of information acquisition,and dig out the factors that may affect the elderly’s willingness to obtain information.Secondly,the hypothesis is proposed based on the observation results,and then the influencing factors are measured and verified by questionnaires.In this study,the integrated technology acceptance model was selected as the basic model,and the original four variables of the model,including "performance expectation","effort expectation","community influence" and "convenience",were retained.At the same time,based on existing studies and my own observation,two variables,namely "selfefficacy" and "risk perception",were added that may have an impact on the elderly’s willingness to obtain information related to COVID-19.To sum up,this study puts forward a total of 6 variables that have an impact on the elderly’s willingness to obtain information,and proposes 6 correlation hypotheses based on the above variables.After testing,all 6variables are positively correlated with the elderly’s willingness to obtain information.According to the research findings,among the above six factors that affect the elderly’s willingness to acquire information related to COVID-19,they can be divided into two levels: environment and individual according to the social cognitive theory.The environmental dimension includes two variables: community influence and convenience.The individual level includes four variables: performance expectation,self-efficacy,effort expectation and risk perception.There may be some relationship between the two levels of influencing factors,that is,the individual level of influencing factors will be affected by the environmental level of influencing factors,so as to affect the elderly’s information acquisition intention.Therefore,this paper puts forward 8 additional hypothesis of mediating effect to verify the above hypothesis.It has been proved that variables at the environmental level can play a mediating role in the influence of variables at the individual level on the elderly’s willingness to acquire information.Finally,based on the research conclusions and the current situation of the elderly’s access to COVID-19 information,this study puts forward relevant suggestions on the elderly’s access to information and the practice of completing digital migration from the perspectives of society,media and individuals.