Português

Abstract

Access to new technologies can be an ally when we think of healthy aging, stimulating cognitive and psychological functions. Despite the increasing attention given to the topic, there is a gap in the Brazilian literature on the influence of depressed humor on the digital learning of elderly people on mobile devices. The present study sought to investigate, in an exploratory way, the existence of depressed mood indicators in the sample of participants. In addition, it examined the relationship between these indicators and the digital proficiency of elderly people, with emphasis on improvement after intervention. Thirty elderly people aged 60 years or more, participants of a digital literacy project, were included in this study in classes that occurred between August 2023 and July 2025. To test the relationship between the 15-item Geriatric Depression scale and the Mobile Device Proficiency Questionnaire, the Spearman correlation was used. The results indicate that although there is a reduction in the number of participants with depressed mood, falling from three to zero (p=0.006), and an improvement in digital proficiency after workshops, where the average points went from 22 to 30, there is no statistically significant relationship between these two measures, showing an effect between 0.3% and 3.4% within the sample. It is concluded that, although digital literacy workshops have contributed to improving digital proficiency and decreasing depressed mood indicators, the findings suggest that depressed humor does not constitute a barrier to learning new technologies.