The relationship between digital literacy, loneliness, quality of life, and health-promoting behaviors among the elderly in the age of COVID-19

Abstract

Social distancing and the expansion of the digital environment due to the impact of COVID-19 are raising the need for digital literacy among the elderly for overall social participation such as mutual communication, health care, and education. The purpose of this study was to identify the correlation between digital literacy, loneliness, quality of life, and health promotion behaviors among the elderly aged between 65 and over and under 75 years. The data collection for this study was from May 1 to June 1, 2021, after approval from the C University Bioethics Review Committee using online questionnaires for 159 young-old elderly living in Korea. This study was a descriptive correlation study to understand the relationship between these variables for the young-old elderly. The collected data were analyzed using IBM SPSS WIN/25.0. The general characteristics were frequency, mean, and standard deviation, the difference of variables according to the general characteristics was analyzed by t-test and one-way ANOVA, and post-analysis was analyzed by Scheffe's test. The correlation between each variable was analyzed using Pearson's correlation. The subjects' digital media literacy was positively correlated with quality of life and health promotion behavior. Loneliness was inversely correlated with quality of life and health-promoting behavior. Quality of life was positively correlated with health-promoting behavior. Based on the results of this study, it is suggested that digital literacy education programs for the elderly in the future are necessary to reduce the elderly's feeling of loneliness and improve the quality of life and health promotion behaviors.