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Digital exclusion linked to frailty in older Chinese adults

A two-year observational study of 10,216 older adults in China linked full digital exclusion to new frailty, reporting a relative risk of 1.42.

Paper by Chang Liu, Hongqiang Lv, Wusi Zhou, Shi Yan · Hangzhou Normal University
Figure 1. Flow of participants through the study, CHARLS 2018–2020. note.
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Figure 1. Flow of participants through the study, CHARLS 2018–2020. note.Flow of participants through the study, CHARLS 2018–2020. note.Liu et al.
Preprint: cohort study of 7,296 initially non-frail older Chinese adults, two-year follow-upPopulations

10,216 participants, 2 years, dose-response

Limit: Unmeasured early-life circumstances could explain part of the association

Edited by Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News

Paper
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An observational study followed 10,216 community-dwelling adults aged 60 or older in China for two years, using surveys from 2018 and 2020. Their mean age was 67.8 years, and 52.4% were women. Researchers assessed internet use, smartphone use, mobile payments and online social activities. No engagement in any domain counted as full digital exclusion, which affected 61.4% of participants.

Among participants without frailty at the start, 17.3% developed it. Full digital exclusion was associated with new frailty after adjustment for other factors. It was also linked to faster accumulation of health problems, measured by a frailty index. Associations were strongest among rural residents and people with primary education or less.

Why it matters

As everyday services move online, the authors suggest considering digital inclusion in healthy-aging strategies, particularly for rural and less-educated populations.

Caveats

This observational analysis cannot establish cause and effect, and its population was community-dwelling Chinese adults aged 60 or older. The preprint has not been peer-reviewed.

From the paper

Result

After full adjustment, full digital exclusion was associated with incident frailty (RR 1.42, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.24–1.63) and with a faster annualised increase in the FI (adjusted difference 0.29 per 0.01 units, 95% CI 0.17–0.41).

Results

Limitation

First, digital engagement was self-reported and did not capture usage intensity, quality or digital literacy.

Strengths and limitations

Quoted word for word from the full text on researchsquare.com.

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