Highlights
- •Frailty was found in 33.0% of our sample of 409 postmenopausal midlife and older women.
- •Information and communication technology, including tablets, computers or smartphones, was used by 258 (63.1%) of the women.
- •Social media, (WhatsApp or Facebook), were used by 223 (86.4%) of those 258 women.
- •Non-use of information and communication technology was an independent predictor of frailty in our postmenopausal cohort.
Abstract
Background
Frailty is a clinically discernible state in which decreased physiological reserve
and function result in a reduced ability to cope with stressors. Information and communication
technology (ICT) has been proposed as an aid to help with frailty, yet the use of
ICT by older people, particularly women, is an understudied area.
Aim
To analyze the association between use of ICT (specifically internet functions and
social media) and frailty status in postmenopausal midlife and elderly women.
Methods
A cross-sectional study was designed to investigate whether frailty status is related
to ICT use in postmenopausal midlife and older women. Community-dwelling women attending
primary health care centers for health checks were invited to participate in the study.
Postmenopausal status was the only inclusion criterion, whereas limitations that could
interfere with use of ICT were exclusion criteria. The Fried phenotype was used to
assess frailty. Four types of ICT use were examined: the internet for e-mail, the
internet for other functions, and social media (WhatsApp or Facebook). Chi-square
test and multivariate multinomial regression analysis were used to examine the association
between frailty status and ICT use.
Results
We included 409 women (age = 67.45 ± 7.81 years, mean ± SD), who were frail (n = 135,
33.01%), pre-frail (n = 159, 38.87%), or robust (n = 115, 28.11%). Frailty status
was significantly and inversely associated with any ICT use, showing a strong association
with use of WhatsApp (P < 0.001) and internet searches (P < 0.001). ICT non-use was
a predictor of frailty, while ICT users were more likely to be robust (OR 10.62; 95%
[CI], 5.34–21.10) or pre-frail (OR 9.03; [CI], 95% 5.18–15.74).
Conclusion
Postmenopausal midlife and older women not using ICT were more likely to be frail.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: May 31, 2021
Accepted:
May 26,
2021
Received in revised form:
May 22,
2021
Received:
February 12,
2021
Identification
Copyright
© 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
