An Exploratory Investigation of Communication Technologies to Alleviate Communicative Difficulties and Depression in Older Adults.
To explore associations between older adults' communicative difficulties, depressive symptoms, and e-mail and telephone use with adult children.



We examined these associations using data from 1,634 participants (age M = 71.16, SD = 0.89; 54% female) in the 2011 wave of the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study.



Better vision and worse speech were associated with more frequent e-mail contact with the selected child. Worse hearing was associated with more depressive symptoms for participants with low e-mail use but not for those with average or high e-mail use. Telephone use was not associated with communicative difficulties or depressive symptoms.



This study provides preliminary evidence that older adults might use communication technologies such as e-mail in their close relationships to compensate for communicative difficulties. The text-based format of e-mail might also help older adults mitigate hearing impairments and associated depressive symptoms.
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, USA ruppele@uwm.edu.
Erin K
EK
Ruppel
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, USA.
Michael G
MG
Blight
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, USA.
Maura R
MR
Cherney
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, USA.
Samantha Q
SQ
Fylling
D000328:Adult; D032721:Adult Children; D000368:Aged; D003147:Communication Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D003863:Depression / Q000517:prevention & control*; D034742:Electronic Mail / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013689:Telephone / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014922:Wisconsin
adult children; communication technologies; communicative difficulties; depression; older adults