Department of Social Work, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong, China.
Faculty of Social Sciences, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong, China.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2023 Jun 23;20(13):6208. doi: 10.3390/ijerph20136208.
Population aging is a major concern worldwide. Active aging should be promoted by increasing the social participation of older adults and enabling them to remain involved in the community. Research has demonstrated the utility of digital resources for addressing the needs of older adults, which include networking, entertaining, and seeking health-related information. However, the digital divide among older adults (i.e., the "gray digital divide") is increasingly being recognized as a social problem that may be related to poor well-being. To obtain updated local data on the prevalence of Internet access and usage and their relationship with perceived well-being, we conducted telephone interviews with a random sample of 1018 older adults in Hong Kong from January to July 2021 (This research has received funding support from the Interdisciplinary Research Matching Scheme, Hong Kong Baptist University). We found that only 76.5% of the participants had Internet access at home, a mobile phone data plan, or both, whereas 36.3% had never used Internet services and 18.2% had no digital devices. A younger age, male gender, higher education level, living with others, and higher self-perceived social class were associated with material access to digital devices and everyday use of Internet services. Participants who accessed the Internet every day had higher levels of life satisfaction and self-rated physical and mental health than those who rarely or never used the Internet. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis revealed that digital skills were significantly associated with self-rated mental health even when controlling for demographic variables (including age, gender, education level, and self-perceived social class). This study contributes to the limited body of literature on the relationship between Internet use, digital skills, and perceived well-being. Our findings highlight the importance of addressing the digital divide even in cities with high penetration of information and communication technology, such as Hong Kong. We also discuss our insights into the use of timely interventions for older adults to address the gray digital divide.
人口老龄化是全球关注的一个主要问题。应该通过增加老年人的社会参与度并使他们能够继续参与社区活动来促进积极老龄化。研究表明，数字资源在满足老年人的需求方面具有实用性，这些需求包括社交、娱乐和获取健康相关信息。然而，老年人之间的数字鸿沟（即“灰色数字鸿沟”）越来越被认为是一个社会问题，可能与较差的幸福感有关。为了获得有关香港老年人互联网接入和使用情况及其与感知幸福感之间关系的最新本地数据，我们于 2021 年 1 月至 7 月期间对 1018 名随机抽取的香港老年人进行了电话访谈（这项研究得到了香港浸会大学跨学科研究匹配计划的资助）。我们发现，只有 76.5%的参与者在家里、手机数据计划或两者都有互联网接入，而 36.3%的参与者从未使用过互联网服务，18.2%的参与者没有数字设备。较年轻的年龄、男性、较高的教育水平、与他人同住以及较高的自我感知社会阶层与数字设备的物质获取和日常互联网服务的使用相关。每天上网的参与者的生活满意度以及自我评估的身心健康水平均高于很少或从不使用互联网的参与者。分层多元回归分析表明，即使在控制人口统计学变量（包括年龄、性别、教育水平和自我感知社会阶层）后，数字技能与自我评估的心理健康状况仍显著相关。本研究为互联网使用、数字技能与感知幸福感之间关系的文献做出了贡献。我们的研究结果强调了即使在香港这样的信息和通信技术普及率较高的城市，解决数字鸿沟问题也很重要。我们还讨论了我们对及时干预老年人以解决灰色数字鸿沟的看法。
