Digital vulnerabilities and the oldest-old

Abstract: While physical and cognitive degeneration can limit older citizens from accessing beneficial digital services (Heponiemi et al., 2023), many lead digitally active lives well into their oldest years. However, those who are more digitally active may be susceptible to fraudulent behaviour, through such life circumstances as loneliness (Liao et al., 2024). In this paper we will build upon a study undertaken with two groups of pensioners, firstly with those aged 70-79, or “Young-Old” combined with “Middle-Old” which investigated how their characteristics and the way they make decisions can increase their susceptibility to digital deception. In this new study we are concerned with understanding how vulnerable our most senior, and often frailest, citizens, or the “oldest-old” feel towards their vulnerability to digital fraud, and the potential negative effect on happiness and quality of life. According to Vincent (2023, pp. 36-37) this age group has often been “ignored” in studies, becoming “invisible”, or treated separately from younger groupings. despite the increasing numbers living to an older age, of containing many of those adopters of digital technology Wu & Gu (2021) discuss how although there is lack of consensus on the age bandings within the “fourth age”, the category “oldest-old” often refers to digital usage, those over the age of 85 in developed economies, while over 80 in developing economies. In this study, we distinguish between two age groups: Group 1 (70–79 years old) with 273 respondents, and Group 2 (80+ years old) with 111 respondents. All respondents reported whether they had experienced identity theft, credit card misuse, or a similar fraud incident. The percentages for the two groups were 23% and 22%, respectively. Has experienced fraudHas not experienced fraudAge 70-79 years old23 77Age 80+ 22 78The questionnaire included three quality-of-life questions, measured using a Likert scale ranging from 0 to 10. For the statistical analysis, responses were categorized as follows: scores of 0–5 were classified as low, 6–7 as medium, and 8–10 as high. Descriptive statistics, presented in the table below, indicate that the oldest-old respondents who had experienced fraud had a lower overall quality-of-life score compared to the middle-old respondents.Quality of life indicators Meaningful life Life satisfactionHappiness in life % reported low % reported low% reported lowAge 70-79, Has experienced fraud or misuse of information11 14 27Age 80+, Has experienced fraud or misuse of information21 17 50 In this paper, we will present a binary logistic regression analysis to identify significant predictors for experiencing fraud versus not experiencing fraud, comparing the middle-old and the oldest-old age groups.ReferencesHeponiemi, T., Kainiemi, E., Virtanen, L., Saukkonen, P., Sainio, P., Koponen, P., & Koskinen, S. (2023). Predicting Internet Use and Digital Competence Among Older Adults Using Performance Tests of Visual, Physical, and Cognitive Functioning: Longitudinal Population-Based Study. J Med Internet Res, 25, e42287. https://doi.org/10.2196/42287 Liao, S., Wang, X., & Zhang, X. (2024). Loneliness could lead to risk of fraud victimization for middle-aged and older adults. Journal of Elder Abuse & Neglect, 36(5), 508-527. Vincent, J. (2023). Life stage or Age? Reviewing perceptions of oldest digital technologies users. In Digital Ageism (pp. 36-52). Routledge. Wu, Q., & Gu, D. (2021). Oldest-Old Adults. In D. Gu & M. E. Dupre (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Gerontology and Population Aging (pp. 3637-3653). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-22009-9_1121

Keywords: Pensioners, retirees, oldest-old, oldest-digital vulnerability, personal traits, the cognitive reflection test, willingness to share personal data

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1006705

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