Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Jun 3, 2020
Date Accepted: May 19, 2021
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Digital information technology use, self-rated health and depression: a population-based study on older migrants
ABSTRACT
Background:
Previous studies have found that in general, in older adults, poor health is associated with a lower likelihood of Internet use, but it is not well known how different indicators of health are associated with different types of digital information technology (DIT) use. Moreover, little is known about the relationship between health and the types of DIT use in older ethnic minority and migrant populations.
Objective:
The aim of this study was to examine the associations of depressive symptoms and self-rated health (SRH) with different dimensions of DIT use in older migrants.
Methods:
We analyzed data from the Care, Health and Ageing in Russian-speaking Minority (CHARM) study, which is based on a nationally representative sample of community-dwelling Russian-speaking adults aged 50 years and older permanently residing in Finland (N=1082, 57% men, mean age 63.2 years, standard deviation 8.4 years, response rate 36%). Data were collected in 2019 using postal survey. Health was measured by depressive symptoms (CES-D) and SRH. Binary logistic regression analyses were used to investigate the associations between the two health indicators and six outcomes: (1) daily Internet use; (2) smartphone ownership; (3) the use of Internet for messages and calls; (4) social media use; (5) the use of Internet for personal health data; (6) obtaining health information from the Internet. A number of sociodemographic and socioeconomic factors were controlled for. Analyses were performed with weights accounting for the survey design and non-response.
Results:
After adjustment for sociodemographic and socioeconomic factors, depressive symptoms were associated with a higher likelihood of not using Internet daily (OR=2.54, 95% CI: 1.30-4.98). Both depressive symptoms (OR=1.85, 95% CI: 1.04-3.30) and suboptimal SRH (OR=1.77, 95% CI: 1.01-3.06) increased the likelihood of smartphone non-use. Depressive symptoms were additionally associated with a lower likelihood of social media use.
Conclusions:
Poor self-rated health and depressive symptoms are associated with a lower likelihood of DIT use in older adults. Longitudinal studies are required to determine the directions of these relationships.digital information technology; older adults; migrants; health; depression Clinical Trial: NA
Citation
Request queued. Please wait while the file is being generated. It may take some time.
Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.