Technology Usage among Elderly with Self-Reported Hearing Disability: Results from InveCe.Ab

Abstract

Background: Awareness of hearing disability in the elderly has adverse cognitive and functional consequences over time, in a longitudinal population-based study. Aim: To analyze the hypothesis that over time old people aware of hearing disability make less use of technology and lose more instrumental activities of daily living than peers with other self-reported hearing conditions. Methods: We analyzed 1171 healthy participants in the longitudinal population-based InveCe.Ab study. The consistency between self-reported hearing loss with clinician-evaluated hearing status (Whispered Voice Test; WVT), was categorized by consistency as: unaware of hearing loss (UHL), aware of hearing loss (AHL), only subjective hearing loss (OSHL), without hearing loss (noHL). Results: At baseline (2010), hearing loss was found in 159 [13.6% (95% CI: 11.7 -15.7)] of the participants [28 = 17.6% (95% CI: 12.0 -24.4) AHL; 131 = 82.4% (95% CI: 75.6 -88) UHL], while 23 [2.3% (95% CI: 1.4 -3.4)] of the subjects with normal WVT had OSHL. Mobile phone usage was significantly associated with different consistency categories (p < 0.001). It was lower in AHL and OSHL than in noHL subjects (p = 0.004 and p = 0.008) and UHL (p = 0.007 and p = 0.011). Doing shopping, using transportation, medication management and handling finances varied depending on consistency categories. Logistic regression models showed that, after 4 years (second follow-up: 2014), among AHL subjects, compared to noHL ones, the odds of having less use of mobile phone had increased over threefold, the odds of acquiring dependence in doing shopping had increased over six fold. Cognitive domains performances (i.e. executive, memory and visuo-spatial) were independently associated with maintaining mobile phone How to cite this paper: Vaccaro, R., Colombo, M., Abbondanza, S., Rolandi, E.,

Effect of a Social Networking Site Training on Cognitive Performance in Healthy Older People and Role of Personality Traits. Results from the Randomized Controlled Trial Ageing in a Networked Society-Social Experiment (ANS-SE) Study

“…Educational interventions on smartphone usage were proposed among targeted interventions for older people with self-perceived hearing disability who showed reduced mobile phone use and dependence in activities of daily living over time. Beside rehabilitation options for hearing loss, educational programs on smartphone use may reduce the psychological impact of hearing loss and enhance social connectedness (Vaccaro et al, 2020). Although previous literature has reported mixed results, some studies have highlighted the efficacy of educational interventions on mobile device that focus on maintaining social networks and improving cognition among the elderly (Lin et al, 2020;Myhre, Mehl, & Glisky, 2017).…”