Impact of cognitive functions and digital health literacy on older adults’ digital proficiency
Tamires do Nascimento*, Carla Cabral dos Santos Accioly Lins, Anna Karla de Oliveira Tito Borbaa, Taiuani Marquine Raymundob, Maria das Graças Wanderley de Sales Coriolano
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AbstractBackground: The advancement of information and communication technologies and population aging are facts in modern society, however, occur in isolation. Several factors, such as the level of cognition, socioeconomic and health factors, may or may not contribute to the adherence to the use of technology by older adults. Seeking to understand how knowledgeable older people are in using technologies is necessary to facilitate their inclusion in society.
Objective: To analyze older adults’ digital proficiency and its association with sociodemographic, psychological, and functional variables and digital health literacy.
Method: This cross-sectional quantitative study was carried out in an institutional program for older people at a public university. The study collected sociodemographic data and assessed mood with the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS), cognition with Addenbrooke's Cognitive Examination Revised (ACE-R), functioning with the Advanced Activities of Daily Living Scale (AADLs), digital health literacy with e-Health Literacy Scale (eHEALS), and knowledge and use of mobile technology devices with the Mobile Device Proficiency Questionnaire (MDPQ). MDPQ was correlated with sociodemographic variables using the Student's t-test and ANOVA test and with the other scales using the Spearman correlation test and Pearson correlation test. The significance level was set at 5%.
Results: The final sample had 60 people aged 60 to 82 years. 68.3% of the sample had a medium level of knowledge and use of mobile devices. MDPQ was significantly correlated with ACE-R (0.003) and eHEALS (p-value < 0.001), indicating that cognition and ability to search for health data on the internet are factors that influence adults’ digital proficiency in this sample.
Conclusion: Older people’s digital proficiency in mobile device use was classified as medium and was associated with (and influenced by) their level of cognition and degree of digital health literacy.Keywords: aged, digital proficiency, Information and communication technology, digital health literacy, digital inclusion
Tamires do Nascimento*, Carla Cabral dos Santos Accioly Lins, Anna Karla de Oliveira Tito Borbaa, Taiuani Marquine Raymundob, Maria das Graças Wanderley de Sales Coriolano (2024). Impact of cognitive functions and digital health literacy on older adults’ digital proficiency. Gerontechnology, 23(1), 1-11
https://doi.org/10.4017/gt.2024.23.1.965.10