AimThis study aimed to examine the relationship between Internet use and self‐rated health among older adults in China, with a particular focus on the mediating role of social capital.MethodsThe data used in this study was obtained from the 2018 wave of China Family Panel Studies, including 7193 older adults aged between 60 and 95 years in urban and rural areas. Furthermore, a binary logit regression model was used to explore the association between Internet use and self‐rated health among older adults. Moreover, we investigated the mediating effect of social capital on the relationship between Internet use and self‐rated health among older adults.ResultsThe overall regression results show that Internet use was significantly associated with a higher possibility of being healthy for older adults. In addition, social capital plays a mediating role in the relationship between Internet use and self‐rated health among the older adults.ConclusionsThis study shows that Internet use was positively related to self‐rated health for the older adults. In addition, this study finds that social capital mediates the relationship between Internet use and self‐rated health among the older adults. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2021; 21: 34–38.

Background and Aim: Depression has become a serious health and social issue in recent years in China. This study aims to explore the relationship between social capital and depressive symptoms among the elderly in China, with a particular focus on the mediating role of life satisfaction. Methods: The data of this study were sourced from the 2016 wave of China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), involving 1243 older adults aged 60 and above. A multiple linear regression model was used to explore the impact of social capital on depressive symptoms. Moreover, the add-on PROCESS macro for SPSS was employed to measure the mediating effect of life satisfaction on the relationship between social capital and depressive symptoms. Results: The regression results suggest that CES-D score was associated with trust (coefficient = −0.1013, p < 0.01). In addition, the protective role of trust was significantly stronger for older adults aged 70-79, women, the poorest 1/3, and the elderly who live in rural areas. Moreover, the mediation analysis results suggest that the effect of trust on depressive symptoms was fully mediated by life satisfaction. Conclusion:This study reveals that social capital has a positive effect on depressive symptoms among the elderly, and the positive health effect shows significant age, gender, income, and location inequalities. Furthermore, this study also provides new evidence indicating that life satisfaction fully mediates the relationship between social capital and depressive symptoms. Improving social capital could be a promising way for China to promote healthy aging in the future.

The purpose of this study is to examine the causal relationship between the New Rural Cooperative Medical Scheme (NRCMS) and health status among Chinese rural adults. The data were drawn from China Family Panel Studies performed in 2016, involving 2,093 rural adults. Furthermore, this study employed k-nearest neighbor matching out of propensity score matching (PSM) to investigate the impact of NRCMS on health status among rural adults. Moreover, radius matching, kernel matching, and nearest-neighbor matching within caliper out of PSM were adopted to conduct sensitivity analyses. This study demonstrates that NRCMS enrollment has had a significant and positive effect on the self-assessed and mental health of rural adults, and the health effect shows significant age and income disparities. Moreover, the positive health effect may result from 2 channels, including the increase of health services utilization and the fact that adults with NRCMS are more likely to seek health care in lower-level medical institutions.

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Background This study aimed to investigate the effect of social participation on income-related inequality in health outcome among older adults in China. Methods The panel data used in this study were sourced from the 2011 and 2014 waves of the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey (CLHLS). Furthermore, this study employed a concentration index to assess the income-related inequality in health outcome. Moreover, this study used the decomposition method of concentration index to analyse the effect of social participation on income-related inequality in health outcome. Results The total concentration index of Instrumental Activity of Daily Living (IADL) status decreased from 0.0257 in 2011 to 0.0172 in 2014. Furthermore, the total concentration index of psychological health decreased from 0.0309 in 2011 to 0.0269 in 2014. The decomposition analysis indicates that social participation made a major contribution to the pro-rich inequality in IADL status. Moreover, the results also indicate that social participation made a minor contribution to the pro-rich inequality in psychological health. Conclusions This study demonstrated that overall there were pro-rich inequalities in IADL status and psychological health among older adults in China. Moreover, social participation made a major contribution to the pro-rich inequality in IADL status, while it made a minor contribution to the pro-rich inequality in psychological health.