ICT Use and Depressive Symptoms Among Asian American Older Adults during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Background and purpose: Information and communication technology (ICT) has been increasingly important to meet the daily and health care needs of older adults, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic. However, little is known about the experience of ICT use among minority older adults and whether such experience affects their mental health during the public health crisis. Focusing on older Chinese and Korean Americans, this study aims to examine the associations between ICT use for different purposes and mental health and the moderating effect of technology learning on those associations.

Methods: Survey data were collected from 513 Chinese and Korean older adults in New York City from May to August 2021. The dependent variable, depressive symptoms, was measured by Patient Health Questionnaire-9. We assessed ICT use for social contact (contact with family and friends via phone call, messaging, video chat), online grocery shopping, health care (contact doctor via phone call, portal message, telehealth), and COVID-19 prevention (infection cases, governors’ presentations, schedules for testing and/or vaccines, strategies for prevention). The moderator, technology learning, was measured and coded into a categorical variable (inactive learner who did not learn any new ICT technology during the pandemic, dependent learner who learned new technology with other’s help, independent learner who self-learned new technology). We conducted linear regression analysis to test the relationship between ICT use for each purpose and depressive symptoms respectively while controlling for sociodemographic characteristics (i.e. age, gender, Chinese/Korean, marital status, living arrangement, education, economic status, employment), acculturation, and self-rated health. In the moderation test, interaction terms of ICT use variables and technology learning were created and added to regression models.

Results: Regression analysis results show that ICT use for social contact, health care and COVID-19 prevention was significantly associated with lower depressive symptoms among these older adults. Older Asian Americans reported lower depressive symptoms when they weekly contacted family and friends via messaging or video calls, sent portal messages to doctors, used telehealth services, and accessed online information (i.e., schedules for testing and/or vaccine, strategies for prevention) related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Technology learning and support was significant in shaping the association between ICT use and depressive symptoms. Comparing to inactive and dependent technology learners, independent learners reported significantly lower depressive symptoms if they use portal message and telehealth for health care. Similarly, accessing to COVID-19 related information was associated to much lower depressive symptoms among independent learners. However, video chat with families and friends was associated with higher depressive symptoms among independent learners.

Conclusions and implications: Focusing on older Asian Americans, the study highlights the association between ICT use and depressive symptoms and the moderating effect of technology learning. The results indicate the potential to improve mental health of older Asian Americans by extending ICT-delivered social and health care services and the necessity to support their technology learning and independence. More research is needed to explain the nuanced mechanism of technology use for various purposes, learning experience, and mental health among older adults in Asian American and other racial minority communities.