Digital divide: Knowledge, attitudes and practices toward mobile phone and apps use among Indonesian older adults residing in a megapolitan city
Purwita Wijaya Laksmi*, Anastasia Asylia Dinakrisma, Teofilus Abdiel, Anindya Pradipta Susanto, Arierta Pujitresnani, Arya Ananda Indrajaya Lukmana, Prasandhya Astagiri Yusuf
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AbstractBackground: Smartphones not only function as a means of communication between communities but also increase access to information and health services. However, this is faced with the challenge of a global digital divide in the use of these devices between generations. Even though the younger generation easily uses digital technology, the older generation generally does not understand technology.
Objective: This study aimed to evaluate knowledge, attitudes, and practices related to cell phone and mobile application utilization among Indonesian urban older adults in relation to the use of mobile health applications.
Method: This was a cross-sectional study on community-dwelling older adult individuals aged 60 years or older in Jakarta, Indonesia, between August and November 2020.
Results: Overall, 95 out of the 109 older adults (87.16%) had used cell phones during the past month. In practice, we found that 53% of older adults used cell phones to browse online health information; however, the percentage of health application users was still low (16%). The main problem these individuals faced when using cell phones was difficulties related to learning to use mobile apps (51%). Only a small number of older adults (19%) learn how to use cell phones by themselves. There was a significant association between the level of education and the need for assistance from others in using cell phones (p=0.005), between the method employed to learn how to use a cell phone and sex (p=0.043) and age (p=0.036).
Conclusion: Indonesian urban older adults have tended to start embracing digital life. Family members play an important role in teaching technology skills to older adults. In addition, the higher the education level of an older adult subject, the more independent he or she was in using a cell phone. Method on how to use a cell phone by self-learning was associated with male sex and younger age (<75 years old). There is a need to improve the number of mobile health application users and eHealth literacy.Keywords: e-Health, older adult, ICT, mobile application
Purwita Wijaya Laksmi*, Anastasia Asylia Dinakrisma, Teofilus Abdiel, Anindya Pradipta Susanto, Arierta Pujitresnani, Arya Ananda Indrajaya Lukmana, Prasandhya Astagiri Yusuf (2024). Digital divide: Knowledge, attitudes and practices toward mobile phone and apps use among Indonesian older adults residing in a megapolitan city. Gerontechnology, 23(1), 1-13
https://doi.org/10.4017/gt.2024.23.1.845.03