Kobayashi, LC;
Wardle, J;
von Wagner, C;
(2014)
Internet use, social engagement, and health literacy decline during ageing in a longitudinal cohort of older English adults.
Journal of epidemiology and community health
10.1136/jech-2014-204733.
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Abstract
Background: Health literacy skills tend to decline during ageing, which is often attributed to age-related cognitive decline. Whether health literacy skills may be influenced by technological and social factors during ageing is unknown. Methods: We investigated whether internet use and social engagement protect against health literacy decline during ageing, independent of cognitive decline. We used prospective data from 4368 men and women aged ≥52 years in the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing from 2004-11. Health literacy was measured at baseline (2004-5) and follow-up (2010-11) using a reading comprehension test of a fictitious medicine label. The influences of consistent internet use and engagement in each of civic, leisure, and cultural activities on health literacy decline over the follow-up were estimated. Results: After adjusting for cognitive decline and other covariates, consistent internet use (1379/4368; 32%) was protectively associated with health literacy decline (OR=0.77; 95% CI: 0.60-0.99), as was consistent engagement in cultural activities (1715/4368; 39%; OR=0.73; 95% CI: 0.56-0.93) As the number of activities engaged in increased, the likelihood of health literacy decline steadily decreased (ptrend<0.0001), with OR=0.51 (95% CI: 0.33-0.79) for engaging in all four of internet use and civic, leisure, and cultural activities vs. none. Conclusion: Internet use and social engagement, particularly in cultural activities (e.g. attending the cinema, art galleries, museums, and the theatre) may help older adults to maintain health literacy during ageing. Support for older adults to maintain socially engaged lives and to access the internet should help promote the maintenance of functional literacy skills during ageing.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Internet use, social engagement, and health literacy decline during ageing in a longitudinal cohort of older English adults |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1136/jech-2014-204733 |
| Publisher version: | http://jech.bmj.com/ |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits any use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and the source are credited. |
| Keywords: | Ageing, Cognition, Longitudinal studies, Social inequalities, Social activities |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Epidemiology and Health UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Epidemiology and Health > Behavioural Science and Health |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1452521 |
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