Relationships among social networking behaviors, depressive symptom and sedentary behaviors in older adults

Abstract

Social networking may help older adults to decrease emotional distress and depression. However, over using or addiction to social networking may lead to sedentary behavior. This descriptive research aimed to examine the relationship between social networking behavior, depressive symptom, and sedentary behavior in older adults. A total of 152 community-dwelling older adults who were living in Bang Bua Thong District, Nonthaburi Province, Thailand, and met inclusion criteria were randomly selected with multi-stage sampling to participate in this study. The data were collected by using The Demographic Questionnaire, Social Network Behavioral Questionnaire, Thai Geriatric Depression Scale-15, and Physical Activity Record Form. Data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics and Spearman’s Rank Correlation Coefficient. A significant level was set at .05. Results revealed that the majority of participants had a high level of social networking behavior (48.0%), but mostly had no depression (92.8%). There was only 3.3% of them had sedentary behavior. Regarding the correlation among study variables, social networking behavior had a mild negatively significant relationship with depressive symptoms, but it was not significant relationship to sedentary behavior. Depressive symptoms had a mild negatively significant relationship with sedentary behavior. The result of this study provides healthcare providers to understand social networking health behavior, depressive symptom, and sedentary behavior, and to help the healthcare providers to plan any intervention to promote healthy behavior in older adults.

Keywords: Social networking behaviors, depressive symptom, sedentary behavior, older adults.

This article is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0