The association between internet non-use and multidimensional frailty in older adults: a three-wave cross-sectional study from 2004 to 2021

ABSTRACT

This study examined the association between frailty and internet (non-)use, using representative data – collected between 2004 and 2021 – of community dwelling people aged 60 and older living in Flanders, Belgium (N = 43,048). Multidimensional frailty was measured by the Comprehensive Frailty Assessment Instrument (CFAI), which is a reliable and valid instrument to assess physical, psychological, social and environmental dimensions of frailty. Internet use was dichotomised into users and non-users. Multivariable regression analyses revealed that the physical domain is the most strongly related frailty factor to internet (non-)use, and this has been a constant trend since 2004. Those in the high physical frailty group have the highest probabilities of being non-user and are up to 8.0% more likely to be non-user than those in the ‘no-low’ physical frailty group. Future research should investigate how human-technology interaction can be improved and make internet technologies more manageable for physical frail older adults. However, average marginal effects indicate that sociodemographic variables are more strongly related to internet (non-)use than frailty domains. This result shows that internet non-use in older people is multifactorial in origin and not only attributed to their frailty status.

KEYWORDS:

• internet non-use
• digital exclusion
• older people
• frailty
• multidimensional frailty

Acknowledgements

The Digital Ageing consortium is composed of researchers from Vrije Universiteit Brussel and University of Antwerp: Ignace Glorieux, Dimitri Mortelmans, An Jacobs, Anina Vercruyssen, Nico De Witte, Ilse Mariën, Werner Schirmer, Bram Spruyt, Cora van Leeuwen, Jorrit Campens and Nelly Geerts. The authors would like to thank the other members of the Digital Ageing Consortium.

I would like to express my deep gratitude to the founders of the Belgian Aging Studies for using their data. This revised manuscript has been seen and approved by all authors, and all contributed to it significantly. All authors have agreed to the submission. The article is not currently being considered for publication by any other print or electronic journal.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethics approval

This study was approved by the ethical committee of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (B.U.N. 143201111521).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO), SBO-project [S005221N].