Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.
Chiba University, Japan.
J Appl Gerontol. 2022 Jan;41(1):167-175. doi: 10.1177/0733464820982147. Epub 2020 Dec 24.
Evidence on the association between internet usage and incidence of depression remains mixed. We examined the associations between different categories of internet usage and developing clinical depression. We used data from the 2013 and 2016 waves of the Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study (JAGES) comprising 12,333 physically and cognitively independent adults aged ≥65 years. Participants were engaged in seven categories of internet usage: communication with friends/family, social media, information collection about health/medicine, searching for medical facilities, purchase of drugs and vitamins, shopping, and banking. We found that internet use for communication had a protective influence on the probability of developing clinical depression defined as the Geriatric Depression Scale scores ≥5 or self-reported diagnosed depression. Our findings support the role of online communication with friends/family in preventing clinical depression among older people. Online communication could be particularly useful in the COVID-19 crisis because many families are geographically dispersed and/or socially distanced.
关于互联网使用与抑郁发生率之间的关联的证据仍然存在争议。我们研究了不同类别的互联网使用与临床抑郁发生之间的关联。我们使用了来自日本老年评估研究（JAGES）2013 年和 2016 年两个波次的数据，其中包括 12333 名身体和认知功能独立的 65 岁及以上老年人。参与者从事了七种类别的互联网使用：与朋友/家人的交流、社交媒体、健康/医学信息收集、搜索医疗设施、药品和维生素购买、购物和银行业务。我们发现，与朋友/家人进行互联网交流对出现临床抑郁的概率有保护作用，其定义为老年抑郁量表评分≥5 或自我报告诊断为抑郁。我们的研究结果支持老年人在线与朋友/家人交流在预防临床抑郁方面的作用。在 COVID-19 危机期间，在线交流可能特别有用，因为许多家庭在地理上分散和/或保持社交距离。
