JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Social isolation has a negative impact on the quality of life of older people, which is why studies have focused on identifying its sociodemographic, economic and health determinants. In view of the growing importance of the internet as a means of communication, it is essential to assess whether the internet use interferes with social isolation.

Objective:

This study specifically aims to clarify the relationship between internet use and social isolation of individuals aged 50+, for which other surveys present contradictory results.

Methods:

The current research uses a logistic regression analysis with social isolation as dependent variable, internet use as interest variable and several other socio-demographic, economic and health characteristics of the individuals as control variables. The sample size is 66,998 individuals aged 50+ from 17 European countries (Portugal, Greece, Italy, Spain, Denmark, Sweden, Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Switzerland, Luxemburg, Poland, Czech Republic; Slovenia, Estonia, and Croatia) plus Israel, who were interviewed in SHARE - Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe, wave 6.

Results:

The results show that countries differ in the level of social isolation and rate of internet use by individuals aged 50+. In most of the countries analyzed, after controlling for a set of socio-demographic, economic and health characteristics of the individuals, previously described in the literature as determinants of social isolation, results also point to a lower social isolation of the internet users when compared to the non-users.

Conclusions:

Internet users are less social isolated. The results underline the importance of promoting e-inclusion in Europe as a way to counter social isolation of inviduals aged 50+.