Analyzing Information Needs of Elderly People: A Survey in Chinese Rural Community

A survey about the information needs of elderly people could find out the information required to address the needs of the aged in a community. Analyzing data collected from 600 elderly people through field investigation with a questionnaire in a rural community in central China, the results show that the preferred information format of the majority of aged people is audio and/or visual information product, especially audio product. Most of the aged people stated that they were in need of healthy and medical non-educational audio information products. The survey maybe lead to improved and expanded information services for respondents who are short of such services, including Public broadcasting services, extending the audiovisual collection, loaning audiovisuals, religious faith audiovisuals and others providing needed information to them. In summary, this paper assembles views on what the elderly people currently need to be helped by both practitioners and researchers in the elderly people services domain.