Zhao Xiaohang, Sun Skylar Biyang
National Academy of Chinese Modernization, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, China.
School of International Development and Cooperation, University of International Business and Economics, Beijing, China.
J Geriatr Psychiatry Neurol. 2025 Sep;38(5):362-377. doi: 10.1177/08919887251330311. Epub 2025 Apr 1.
ObjectiveThis study aims to examine educational heterogeneity in the relationship between internet use and episodic memory among older adults in China, within the context of advancing Chinese modernization.MethodsData from the 2018 and 2020 waves of China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) were used for analysis. By employing a longitudinal study design with lagged predictors and the inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW) approach alongside its extension-the marginal structural model (MSM) for sufficient cause interactions-this study mitigated potential reverse causality and self-selection biases related to internet use and educational attainment.ResultsThe findings indicate a significant positive longitudinal association between internet use and delayed word recall in older women, incorporating delayed and immediate recall scores at baseline as covariates for predicting propensity scores of internet use. Additionally, the preservation of delayed word recall linked to internet use was more pronounced among older women with less than an elementary school education. Doubly robust estimation results further confirmed the reliability of the core findings. Furthermore, we investigated the longitudinal associations between specific online activities and episodic memory. The results show that posting on social media and engaging in online chatting positively correlated with episodic memory in older women, whereas browsing news online was positively associated with episodic memory in older men.ConclusionThese findings support the cognitive enrichment hypothesis, which asserts that internet use serves as a mentally stimulating activity that may help delay cognitive aging, especially among individuals with limited cognitive stimuli.
目的
本研究旨在在中国推进现代化的背景下，考察中国老年人互联网使用与情景记忆之间关系中的教育异质性。
方法
使用中国健康与养老追踪调查（CHARLS）2018年和2020年两轮的数据进行分析。本研究采用带有滞后预测变量的纵向研究设计以及处理加权的逆概率（IPTW）方法及其扩展——用于充分原因交互作用的边际结构模型（MSM），以减轻与互联网使用和教育程度相关的潜在反向因果关系和自我选择偏差。
结果
研究结果表明，在老年女性中，互联网使用与延迟单词回忆之间存在显著的正向纵向关联，将基线时的延迟和即时回忆分数作为预测互联网使用倾向分数的协变量。此外，在小学以下文化程度的老年女性中，与互联网使用相关的延迟单词回忆的保留更为明显。双重稳健估计结果进一步证实了核心发现的可靠性。此外，我们研究了特定在线活动与情景记忆之间的纵向关联。结果表明，在老年女性中，在社交媒体上发帖和进行在线聊天与情景记忆呈正相关，而在老年男性中，在线浏览新闻与情景记忆呈正相关。
结论
这些发现支持认知丰富假说，该假说认为互联网使用是一种精神刺激活动，可能有助于延缓认知衰老，尤其是在认知刺激有限的个体中。
