College of Economics and Management, Zhejiang A&F University, 311300, Hangzhou, China.
School of Agronomy Sciences, Jiangxi Agricultural University, 330045, Nanchang, China.
BMC Public Health. 2022 Mar 15;22(1):508. doi: 10.1186/s12889-022-12952-0.
Due to the penetration of Internet use and the popularity of "Internet + elderly care" among seniors in recent years, the elderly are gradually integrating into the information society. This study examined the impact of smartphones on the self-rated health levels of the elderly.
We studied 3042 elderly people over 55 years of age in Jiangxi, China in 2018. The effect of smartphones was measured from three aspects: smartphone usage, smartphone usage ability, and smartphone usage purpose, and the multivariate ordered logistic model was applied. Furthermore, considering the potential endogeneity of the smartphone usage of elderly people, the propensity score matching (PSM) method was used to analyze the net effect of smartphones on the health levels of the elderly.
(1) The use of smartphones had a significant positive impact on the self-rated health levels of the elderly, with its significance being at the level of 1%. Smartphone usage ability, and using smartphone to learn or search for health information, had significant positive impacts (at the level of 5%) on the self-rated health levels of the elderly. (2) The k-nearest neighbor matching, kernel matching and radius matching methods were used to calculate the net effect of smartphone usage on the self-rated health levels of the elderly. The results were 13.26, 15.33 and 14.80%, respectively. (3) The age of the participants significantly (at the level of 1%) negatively affected their self-rated health levels. Other characteristics of the elderly, including income, education level, living with children or spouse and children's living conditions, significantly (all at the level of 1%) positively affected their self-rated health levels.
Smartphone usage, smartphone usage ability, and smartphone usage purposes all improved the self-rated health of the elderly. The Internet factor should be focused on in the process of active aging. We should improve the Internet use ability of the elderly through voluntary training or public lectures.
近年来，由于互联网的普及以及“互联网+养老”在老年人中的流行，老年人逐渐融入信息社会。本研究考察了智能手机对老年人自评健康水平的影响。
我们于 2018 年在江西研究了 3042 名 55 岁以上的老年人。从智能手机使用、智能手机使用能力和智能手机使用目的三个方面来衡量智能手机的影响，并应用多元有序逻辑模型。此外，考虑到老年人智能手机使用的潜在内生性，采用倾向评分匹配（PSM）方法来分析智能手机对老年人健康水平的净效应。
（1）智能手机的使用对老年人的自评健康水平有显著的正向影响，其显著性水平为 1%。智能手机使用能力和使用智能手机学习或搜索健康信息对老年人的自评健康水平有显著的正向影响（显著性水平为 5%）。（2）采用 K-最近邻匹配、核匹配和半径匹配方法计算智能手机使用对老年人自评健康水平的净效应，结果分别为 13.26%、15.33%和 14.80%。（3）参与者的年龄显著（显著性水平为 1%）负向影响他们的自评健康水平。老年人的其他特征，包括收入、教育水平、与子女或配偶同住以及子女的生活条件，均显著（显著性水平均为 1%）正向影响他们的自评健康水平。
智能手机的使用、智能手机的使用能力以及智能手机的使用目的均提高了老年人的自评健康水平。在积极老龄化的过程中，应关注互联网因素。我们应该通过自愿培训或公共讲座来提高老年人的互联网使用能力。
