Addressing elderly loneliness with ICT Use: the role of ICT self-efficacy and health consciousness

With an increasing aging population worldwide, loneliness among elderly individuals has become a salient societal problem. Fortunately, the last decade has also witnessed an upsurge in information and communication technology (ICT), which is ubiquitously deployed and integrated into our daily lives, including the lives of elderly people. This research investigates the potential exploitation of well-developed ICT to mitigate loneliness among the elderly. Specifically, we examined the effects of two dimensions of ICT use: communication use and information use. Moreover, we examined the moderating effects of two relevant features in the elderly population, namely, ICT self-efficacy and health consciousness. We applied structural equation modeling (SEM) to evaluate survey data from mainland China comprising 436 effective responses from the elderly population. We find that ICT use has a positive effect on loneliness among the elderly, and our results support and deepen this understanding, indicating that ICT self-efficacy and health consciousness can moderate the relationship between ICT use and loneliness. Our findings suggest that ICT use plays a significant role in mitigating elderly loneliness. Moreover, it is also suggested that the characteristics of ICT self-efficacy and health consciousness for the elderly can influence the relationship between their ICT use and loneliness. This gives a more accurate description, as compared with the main findings in prior literature, that ICT can help mitigate loneliness in the elderly. Finally, by adopting social cognitive theory, our research explains the moderating effect of ICT self-efficacy and health consciousness between the use of ICT by the elderly and their loneliness.