School of Health Management, Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, China.
The Second School of Clinical Medicine, Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, China.
J Affect Disord. 2025 Jan 1;368:645-654. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2024.09.037. Epub 2024 Sep 19.
Depressive symptoms is more prevalent in middle-aged and older populations, and the development of Internet technology has brought new challenges and opportunities for the mental health of this group. This study aims to explore the bidirectional relationship between Internet device diversity and levels of depressive symptoms through longitudinal data analysis, as well as investigate the mediating role of social participation.
Data for the analysis was retrieved from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) in 2015, 2018, and 2020, which included 9259 middle-aged and older adults. The sum of the number of devices mentioned by each participant was calculated to assess the diversity of internet device use, a weighted total score of how frequently and to what extent individuals had participated in various social activities in the past month was calculated to measure the social engagement, and the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale was used to calculate depressive symptoms. A cross-lagged mediation model and bivariate correlation analysis were employed to examine the longitudinal relationships among depressive symptoms, internet device diversity, and social participation. Age, gender, highest education level, marital status, drinking status, smoking history, self-rated health, sleep duration, and chronic health conditions were adjusted as covariates.
The results from the three waves of longitudinal data revealed mutual predictive relationships among internet device diversity, social participation, and depressive symptoms. The mediating effect was significant (β = -0.612, 95 % CI -0.796 to -0.429), with significant gender differences observed. Furthermore, our findings indicated that social participation functioned as a protective factor against depressive symptoms, and the association between social participation and depressive symptoms was not a straightforward linear relationship. This suggests that participation in social activities (either high or low) is associated with a lower risk of depressive symptoms compared to no social participation, with no gender differences.
This study suggests that there is a relationship between internet device diversity and lower levels of depressive symptoms among middle-aged and older adults in China. Social participation mediates the relationship between internet device diversity and depressive symptoms, and different levels of social engagement have different effects on depressive symptoms. It is recommended to increase support for social participation among middle-aged and older adults, strengthen structural social capital, and better leverage the use of the internet to reduce depressive symptoms levels and promote the physical and mental well-being of this population.
抑郁症状在中年和老年人中更为普遍，互联网技术的发展给这一群体的心理健康带来了新的挑战和机遇。本研究旨在通过纵向数据分析，探讨互联网设备多样性与抑郁症状水平之间的双向关系，并探讨社会参与的中介作用。
本分析的数据来源于中国健康与养老追踪调查（CHARLS）2015 年、2018 年和 2020 年的数据，共包括 9259 名中年和老年人。通过计算每个参与者所提到的设备数量之和来评估互联网设备使用的多样性，通过计算个人在过去一个月内各种社会活动的参与频率和程度的加权总分来衡量社会参与度，并用流行病学研究中心抑郁量表来计算抑郁症状。采用交叉滞后中介模型和双变量相关分析来检验抑郁症状、互联网设备多样性和社会参与之间的纵向关系。年龄、性别、最高教育程度、婚姻状况、饮酒状况、吸烟史、自评健康、睡眠时间和慢性健康状况作为协变量进行调整。
来自三波纵向数据的结果显示，互联网设备多样性、社会参与和抑郁症状之间存在相互预测关系。中介效应显著（β=-0.612，95%置信区间-0.796 至-0.429），且存在显著的性别差异。此外，我们的研究结果表明，社会参与是抑郁症状的保护因素，社会参与与抑郁症状之间的关系不是简单的线性关系。这表明，与没有社会参与相比，参与社会活动（无论是高还是低）都与较低的抑郁症状风险相关，且没有性别差异。
本研究表明，在中国，互联网设备多样性与中年和老年人的抑郁症状水平之间存在关系。社会参与在互联网设备多样性与抑郁症状之间起中介作用，不同水平的社会参与对抑郁症状有不同的影响。建议增加对中年和老年人社会参与的支持，加强结构性社会资本，并更好地利用互联网来降低抑郁症状水平，促进这一人群的身心健康。
