Delivering Information of General Interest Through Interactive Television: A Taxonomy of Assistance Services for the Portuguese Elderly

In the context of an ageing population, providing relevant information to support seniors' daily activities plays an important role to promote these citizens' quality of life. This study is part of the +TV4E project, which aims to develop an Interactive Television (iTV) platform to transmit personalized information regarding Services of General Interest (SGI) to senior citizens. In order to better assess seniors' preferences and expectations this study aims to propose the Assistance Services of General Interest for Elderly (ASGIE) concept and taxonomy. To achieve this, we set out to collect contributions from specialists in welfare promotion and public policies development for the Portuguese elderly to elicit detailed perceptions on the information needs of these population segment. The validity and relevance of contributions gathered along with these specialists were subsequently confirmed in a survey with 23 seniors recruited in the context of the +TV4E project. The ASGIE taxonomy is composed by 7 domains of information: Healthcare and Welfare services, Social services, Financial services, Culture services, Security services, Transport services and Local authority services. Findings from this study are relevant for authorities in charge of designing, implementing and monitoring public policies for seniors, as they present valuable indicators of information needs of these citizens.