THE EXPLORATION OF CORRELATES OF LONELINESS AMONG COMMUNITY-DWELLING OLDER PEOPLE’S TECHNOLOGY LITERACY

Social isolation is a major public health risk among older adults, even considered to be as harmful as smoking. The aim of this study was to explore the benefits of digital literacy and the correlates related to levels of loneliness on older people.Mail-survey data were collected from community-dwelling adults over the age of 65. There were 192 total participants, with information from 180 people being included in the analysis.The six-item De Jong Loneliness Scale was used to measure levels of loneliness. Among the 180 participants, the mean was 2.02 (SD = 1.68).Regression analysis revealed that the equation explained 48.2% of variance (adjusted R-squared = .446) in levels of loneliness (F (11,162) = 13.682, p