School of Humanities and Management, Zhejiang Chinese Medicine University, Hangzhou, China.
School of Health Management, Changchun University of Chinese Medicine, Changchun, China.
Front Public Health. 2024 Oct 21;12:1405675. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1405675. eCollection 2024.
This study investigates peer effects on the health behaviors of middle-aged and older adult people in China and examines the moderating role of Internet use.
A total of 16,188 respondents were selected from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) 2020 data set. Ordinary Least Squares and Quantile Regression were used to validate the peer effect of health behaviors on middle-aged and older adults, and a moderating effects model was used to test the moderating roles of Internet use and Internet proficiency. Finally, the peer effect was analyzed for heterogeneity according to Internet use preferences.
The peer effect had a positive influence on the individual health behaviors of middle-aged and older adult people in China ( = 0.5341, < 0.001). Middle-aged and older adult people were more sensitive to the average health behavior level of the community when they lived in rural communities and/or had a low level of education. Internet use positively moderated the health behavior peer effect in the older adult population ( = 0.0094, < 0.1), and Internet proficiency negatively moderated the peer effect of the health behaviors of the middle-aged population ( = 0.1589, < 0.1). According to the magnitude of the influence of peer effect, the Internet preference type can be ranked from social and entertainment ( = 0.6250, < 0.01), to cultural and entertainment ( = 0.5835, < 0.01), to comprehensive ( = 0.4622, p < 0.01).
There is a peer effect on the health behaviors of middle-aged and old-aged individuals, in which Internet use plays a moderating role. The construction of healthy communities should be promoted, giving full play to the community's active role in health promotion. Attention should be paid to the health-enabling function of the Internet, encouraging middle-aged and older adult people to use the Internet actively, moderately, and diversely, and making full use of the advantages of short videos for online health education.
本研究调查了同辈效应对中国中老年人群健康行为的影响，并检验了互联网使用的调节作用。
本研究使用 2020 年中国健康与养老追踪调查（CHARLS）数据，共选取了 16188 名受访者。采用普通最小二乘法和分位数回归验证健康行为对中老年人群的同辈效应，并采用调节效应模型检验互联网使用和互联网熟练程度的调节作用。最后，根据互联网使用偏好分析了异质性的同辈效应。
在中国，同辈效应对中老年人群的个体健康行为有正向影响（ = 0.5341， < 0.001）。中老年人群在农村社区居住或受教育程度较低时，对社区平均健康行为水平更为敏感。互联网使用对老年人群健康行为的同辈效应具有正向调节作用（ = 0.0094， < 0.1），而互联网熟练程度对中年人群健康行为的同辈效应具有负向调节作用（ = 0.1589， < 0.1）。根据同辈效应影响程度的大小，互联网偏好类型可以从社会娱乐型（ = 0.6250， < 0.01）、文化娱乐型（ = 0.5835， < 0.01）到综合型（ = 0.4622，p < 0.01）进行排序。
中老年人群的健康行为存在同辈效应，互联网使用发挥着调节作用。应倡导健康社区建设，充分发挥社区在促进健康方面的积极作用。关注互联网的健康赋能功能，鼓励中老年人群积极、适度、多样化地使用互联网，充分利用短视频在网络健康教育方面的优势。
