ROMANIAN SENIORS, INTERNET AND HEALTH
ROMANIAN SENIORS, INTERNET AND HEALTH

Summary/Abstract: Research shows that older adults respond differently to online communication than younger adults. Seniors face new challenges in the case of the present deplacement in the study and practice of medical communication. This displacement is a movement from a paternalistic model of patient-provider information toward enclosing the medical and human values in the process of decision-taking of informed patient in medical interaction. The present study draws on the hypotheses related to health-related Internet use by seniors and try to validate them in a specific context – the Romanian society. The sample of seniors included in the analysis was made of ten persons aged +65 years old who used the Internet not only to obtain daily information and to socialise with their friends but also to search for health-related information. Preliminary results showed that Romanian seniors still do not consider online health information to be as reliable as inter-personal communication with their GP. At the same time, Romanian older adults are overloaded with the sheer amount of information available on the net and tend to “simplify” it by checking that information with medical staff (e.g., GP, nurses). As our set if interviews Romanian seniors have a lower desire to control their own health care by themselves and remain deeply dependent on the interpersonal medical communication with GPs, family, pharmacists or friends.

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