Computer savvy elders lead healthy life
Asian News International
Computer savy senior citizens have fewer depressive symptoms than their peers, who are not so technologically connected, according to a research.
The data regarding computer use and depressive symptoms was collected as part of the latest wave of an ongoing study that is designed to determine the changes over time in physical health, mental health and social activity of older adults living in lower Manhattan.
The computer use study was conducted by Edward Cisek, PhD, and Kathleen Triche, DSW, CSW.
Triche, who presented the study's findings at the conference in Washington, D.C., said that the researchers decided to look into the impact of the growing use of computers by seniors on the hypothesis that those using computers would report fewer depressive symptoms than non-users.
"Given the social and informational nature of older adults' computer practices - e-mail, chat rooms and health information gathering, for example, it seemed likely that this would be beneficial to an individual's overall mental health," Triche said.
In the computer study, it was determined, after controlling for a number of background characteristics, that seniors who were computer users reported significantly fewer depressive symptoms than their counterparts who do not use the computer.
Researchers also found that computer users tended to be among the younger members of the study group and have higher annual household incomes, while also reporting higher functioning in activities of daily living than the rest of the seniors in the study group.
Source: ANI
Senior Citizen Aticles | Computer Savvy Elders
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