Active aging and internet use to improve the quality of life of the seniors

Abstract

The World Health Organization uses the term "active aging" to refer to the process by which it is intended to improve the quality of life of the elderly, developing the means to promote their health, their participation in society and their safety. The objective of this study is to analyze the effect of Internet use, on mood, in a sample consisting of 654 students of the Classroom of Experience of the University of Seville. For this, a reduced version of Yesavage's Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) is used and sociodemographic data are collected, related to personal situation, physical activity practice and Internet use through a questionnaire designed ad hoc. After performing a descriptive and correlation analysis of the data, it is found that the variety of uses made of the internet correlates significantly, negatively, with the number of responses that indicate depression on the GDS scale (p <0.001). Internet applications that are associated with better levels of psychological wellbeing are using the Internet to read press, watch videos on YouTube and participate in social networks.