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Age-friendliness of city, loneliness and depression moderated by internet use during the COVID-19 pandemic


Citation

Ng, Siew-Imm and Lim, Xin-Jean and Hsu, Hui-Chuan and Chou, Chen-Chen (2022) Age-friendliness of city, loneliness and depression moderated by internet use during the COVID-19 pandemic. Health Promotion International, 38 (3). pp. 1-11. ISSN 0957-4824; ESSN: 1460-2245

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the association between age-friendliness of a city, loneliness and depression moderated by internet use among older people during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The survey was from ‘The 2020 Survey of Needs Assessment for a Safe Community and Age-Friendly City’ in Xinyi District, Taipei, which was conducted by face-to-face interviews with community-based older adults who were aged 65 and above from one district of Taipei City from May to June 2020 (n = 335). Partial least square structural equation modeling and the SPSS PROCESS macro were used for data analysis. Two domains of an age-friendly city (housing and community support and health services) were found to be associated with reduced loneliness, while one (respect and social inclusion) was associated with decreased depression. The age-friendliness of cities mitigates depression through moderator (internet use) and mediation (loneliness) mechanisms. Although some age-friendly domains of the city reduced loneliness and depression directly, the age-friendliness–loneliness-depression mechanism held true only for older adults who used the internet and not for nonusers. Maintaining the age-friendliness of an environment is beneficial to mental health, and internet use is a necessary condition to gain optimum benefits from age-friendly initiatives. Policy suggestions are discussed.


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Additional Metadata

Item Type: Article
Divisions: School of Business and Economics
DOI Number: https://doi.org/10.1093/heapro/daac040
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Keywords: Elderly; Health promotion environment; ICT; Mental health; Structural equation model
Depositing User: Ms. Nur Faseha Mohd Kadim
Date Deposited: 17 Jul 2024 03:39
Last Modified: 17 Jul 2024 03:39
Altmetrics: http://www.altmetric.com/details.php?domain=psasir.upm.edu.my&doi=10.1093/heapro/daac040
URI: http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/100150
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