Digital divide as a determinant of health in the U.S. older adults: prevalence, trends, and risk factors

Yang, Rumei; Gao, Shiying; Jiang, Yun

doi:10.1186/s12877-024-05612-y

BMC Geriatrics

Table 3 Sociodemographic factors related to digital access gap, e-commutation gap, and cognitive gap

From: Digital divide as a determinant of health in the U.S. older adults: prevalence, trends, and risk factors

	Digital access gap^#					E-communication gap^#
	OR	95% CI		P			OR		95% CI	P
Age (years)	1.09	1.07, 1.11		< 0.001			1.03		1.01, 1.05	0.001
Sex (female)	0.55	0.41, 0.74		< 0.001			0.99		0.81, 1.21	0.935
Education (some college or higher)	0.23	0.18, 0.31		< 0.001			0.49		0.39, 0.63	< 0.001
Married or partnered	0.48	0.30, 0.78		0.004			0.74		0.55, 0.98	0.034
Race/ethnicity
White people	Ref	Ref		Ref			Ref		Ref	Ref
African American	1.49	1.01, 2.21		0.047			1.04		0.76, 1.42	0.822
Hispanic people	1.82	1.13, 2.93		0.015			2.11		1.48, 3.03	< 0.001
Other	1.41	0.79, 2.53		0.243			1.13		0.75, 1.69	0.556
Annual household income (≥$50,000)	0.29	0.20, 0.43		< 0.001			0.44		0.34, 0.56	< 0.001
Live alone	1.01	0.63, 1.61		0.976			0.88		0.64, 1.21	0.416
Rural residency	1.12	0.75, 1.66		0.588			1.48		1.13, 1.95	0.005
Health insurance	1.14	0.39, 3.37		0.813			0.51		0.18, 1.44	0.202
Comorbidities	0.90	0.82, 0.99		0.036			0.82		0.76, 0.88	< 0.001
	Cognitive gap (2017, 2019)^## Self-efficacy in seeking health information					Cognitive gap (2018, 2020)^### Self-efficacy in seeking cancer health information
	OR	95% CI	P		OR			95% CI		P
Age (years)	1.01	0.96, 1.05	0.791		1.00			0.96, 1.05		0.825
Sex (female)	0.71	0.45, 1.13	0.150		1.00			0.56, 1.78		0.987
Education (some college or higher)	0.49	0.28, 0.86	0.014		0.73			0.41, 1.31		0.289
Married or partnered	0.89	0.44, 1.79	0.740		0.77			0.30, 1.98		0.587
Race/ethnicity
White people	Ref				Ref
African American	0.92	0.45, 1.88	0.814		0.95			0.45, 2.00		0.885
Hispanic people	4.61	2.28, 9.34	< 0.001		1.95			0.99, 3.81		0.052
Other	2.81	1.17, 6.77	0.021		0.98			0.31, 3.14		0.975
Annual household income (≥$50,000)	0.54	0.26, 1.10	0.088		0.78			0.43, 1.40		0.399
Live alone	1.41	0.75, 2.68	0.283		0.83			0.30, 2.31		0.714
Rural residency	0.80	0.36, 1.76	0.573		1.08			0.47, 2.45		0.856
Health insurance	1.51	0.11, 20.67	0.756		0.25			0.01, 5.20		0.367
Comorbidities	1.23	0.95, 1.58	0.116		1.11			0.90, 1.38		0.317

Note. OR = Odds ratio
^#Statistics were derived from 2017 to 2020 (4 survey cycles; N = 5,671); ^##statistics were derived from years of 2017 and 2019 (2 survey cycles; n = 3,022); ^###statistics were derived from years of 2018 and 2020 (2 survey cycles; n = 2,649)

Back to article page

ISSN: 1471-2318

Contact us

General enquiries: journalsubmissions@springernature.com