Internet use and depressive symptoms among Chinese older adults: Two sides of internet use

Mu, Aruhan; Yuan, Sanyi; Li, Yong

doi:10.3389/fpubh.2023.1149872

Cited by 18 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…Previous studies also supported that excessive time spent on the internet had a high risk of depressive symptoms. [47] In addition, there was a large proportion population with lower educational attainment in developing countries, who contributed to less help from the internet. In particular, our study has shown that the low educational level and high rate of internet use existed simultaneously in Mexico, which explained the protective effect of internet use was minimal compared to other cohorts to some extent.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Internet use and frailty in middle-aged and older adults: Findings from developed and developing countries

2024

Preprint

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Background With increasing trend of internet use in all age groups, whether internet use can prevent frailty in middle-aged and older adults remains unclear. Methods Five cohorts across the United States, England, 28 Europe countries, China and Mexico were used in this study. Frailty status was assessed by frailty index based on a standard procedure. Generalized estimating equations models, random effects meta-analysis, and mediation analysis were utilized. Results In the multicohort study, a total of 155,695 participants were included. The proportion of internet use was varied across countries, ranging from 5.56% in China to 83.46% in Denmark. According to the generalized estimating equations models and meta-analysis, internet use was inversely associated with frailty, with the pooled ORs (95%CIs) of 0.72 (0.67,0.79). Additionally, the association was partially mediated by social activities and slightly pronounced in participants aged 65 and over, male, not working for payment, not married or partnered, not smoking, drinking, and not co-residence with children. Conclusions Our findings highlight the important role of internet use in the incidence of frailty and recommend more engagements in social activities among middle-aged and older adults. Grasping the opportunity to spread health information and increase social activities by the internet would decrease the incidence of frailty.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Internet use and frailty in middle-aged and older adults: Findings from developed and developing countries

2024

Preprint

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“…Second, previous studies would suggest that the impact of Internet use on mental health should be examined in terms of the purpose of Internet use, time spent on the Internet, and Internet skills: Frequent Internet users or those who used the Internet for communication purposes received a beneficial impact on their mental health, but Internet use for health-related information searching was associated with poor mental health [ 18 , 37 ]. Prevalence of depression was higher in older adults with longer time spent on the Internet, and lower in those with higher Internet skills and in those who used the WeChat function [ 36 ]. Future research should evaluate the associations of these factors with incident disability.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Longitudinal association between frequency of Internet use and incident disability among community-dwelling older people during the COVID-19 pandemic

Tomioka,

Shima,

Saeki

2024

Environ. Health Prev. Med.

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Background There is limited evidence of a protective effect of Internet use for incident disability (ID) during the COVID-19 pandemic. We investigated the association between frequency of Internet use (FIU) and ID among community-dwelling older people. Methods We used longitudinal data from the 2019 and 2022 surveys, including 7,913 residents aged ≥65 without disability at baseline. ID was defined as a new public long-term care insurance certification. FIU at baseline was categorized into daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, and non-users. Changes in FIU before and during the COVID-19 pandemic were categorized into continuing frequent (i.e., daily or weekly), continuing moderate (i.e., monthly or yearly), increase in frequency, from non-users to users, decrease in frequency, from users to non-users, and continuing non-users. Covariates included age, gender, education, perceived economic situation, family structure, body mass index, chronic medical conditions, dietary variety, working status, walking time, and cognitive functioning. Multivariable Poisson regression models were used to estimate adjusted cumulative incidence ratio (aCIR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) for ID. Results During the 3-year follow-up, 132 of 4,453 people aged 65–74, 595 of 3,460 people aged ≥75, 287 of 3,660 men, and 440 of 4,253 women developed ID. For FIU at baseline, among people aged ≥75 or men, there was a dose-response relationship between more frequent Internet use at baseline and a lower risk of ID ( P -trend was 0.005 in people aged ≥75, and <0.001 in men). Compared to non-users, daily users had a significantly lower risk of ID [aCIR (95% CI) = 0.69 (0.53–0.90) in people aged ≥75, and 0.49 (0.34–0.70) in men]. For changes in FIU, “continuing frequent” and “from non-users to users” had a lower risk of ID than continuing non-users. After stratified analyses, “continuing frequent” remained a significant association in people aged ≥75 or in men, while “from non-users to users” had a significant association in those with daily walking time <30 minutes. Conclusions Although FIU may act as a marker of disability, or indicate individual adaptability, our findings suggest that Internet use may be a potential preventive measure against ID in community-dwelling older people when social distancing is required. Supplementary information The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.1265/ehpm.23-00207 .

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“…The independent variables were Internet use (“Do you use the Internet?”; 1 = yes, 0 = no), length of Internet use (“How long do you use the Internet every day?”; 1 = less than 1 h, 2 = 1–3 h, 3 = 3–5 h, 4 = more than 5 h), and content of Internet use. Content of Internet use included contacting relatives and friends, watching the news, watching videos, getting health codes (a QR code used to provide personal health information during the epidemic prevention and control period), searching for health information, online payment, online shopping, playing games, and managing money ( 27 , 32 , 35 ). In addition, we collected the following characteristics of the respondents as control variables: gender (1 = male, 2 = female), age (1 = under 60 years old, 2 = 60 years old and above), marital status (1 = not married, 2 = married), residence (1 = rural, 2 = urban), education level (1 = primary school and below, 2 = junior high school, 3 = senior high school and above), employment status (1 = inactive, 2 = active).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The relationship between Internet use and loneliness of middle-aged and older adult people: the moderating effect of residence

Li,

Yang,

Zhao

et al. 2024

Front. Public Health

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ObjectivesThe proportion of middle-aged and older adult people exposed to the Internet continues to grow. Internet use may have an impact on the mental health of the older adult, especially loneliness. This study analyzed the relationship between Internet use and presence of loneliness.MethodsA total of 550 person aged 45 years and above were randomly selected from a province in eastern China at the end of 2022. The outcome variable was presence of loneliness, as measured by self-report. Descriptive analysis, chi-square test and binary logistic analysis were used to analyze the data.Results58.3% of respondents use the Internet. Internet use could reduce the possible of reported loneliness in middle-aged and older adult people (OR = 0.652, 95%CI: 0.465, 0.940), and residence played a moderating role in the relationship between them. Middle-aged and older adults who used the Internet for 1–3 h (OR = 0.464, 95%CI: 0.275, 0.784) and 3–5 h (OR = 0.484, 95%CI: 0.247, 0.946) were less likely to felt lonely than those who used the Internet for less than 1 h per day. In addition, middle-aged and older adult people using the Internet to contact relatives and friends (OR = 0.488, 95%CI:0.292, 0.818), read the news (OR = 0.485, 95%CI:0.277, 0.848), assets management (OR = 0.297, 95%CI:0.109, 0.818) were less likely to report loneliness, while those who made online payment (OR = 3.101, 95%CI:1.413, 6.807) were more likely to report loneliness.ConclusionThere is a significant negative correlation between Internet use and presence of loneliness, but different Internet duration and content have different effects on loneliness in middle-aged and older adult people. We should pay attention to the impact of Internet use on loneliness in middle-aged and older adult people.

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Internet use and depressive symptoms among Chinese older adults: Two sides of internet use

Cited by 18 publications

References 35 publications

Internet use and frailty in middle-aged and older adults: Findings from developed and developing countries

Internet use and frailty in middle-aged and older adults: Findings from developed and developing countries

Longitudinal association between frequency of Internet use and incident disability among community-dwelling older people during the COVID-19 pandemic

The relationship between Internet use and loneliness of middle-aged and older adult people: the moderating effect of residence

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