Yang Yifan, He Xinying
School of Public Administration, Southwest Jiaotong University, No. 111, North Section 1, Second Ring Road, Chengdu 610031, China.
Healthcare (Basel). 2025 Aug 7;13(15):1931. doi: 10.3390/healthcare13151931.
: China is confronted with the dual challenges of deeply interwoven population aging and the digitalization process. The digital integration and mental health issues of the elderly group are becoming increasingly prominent. : The present study aimed to analyze the pathways through which individual, family, and social factors influence Internet use in the elderly through a multi-level analysis framework, to examine the association between Internet use and mental health with a view to providing empirical evidence for digital technology-based mental health intervention programs for the elderly, and to promote the scientific practice of the goal of healthy aging. : Based on the data of the 2021 China General Social Survey (CGSS) and provincial Internet development indicators, a mixed cross-sectional dataset was constructed. Logistic hierarchical regression and OLS regression methods were adopted to systematically investigate the multi-level factors associated with Internet use among the elderly group and its association with mental health. : The results indicate that individual resources (younger age, higher education level, and good health status) and family technical support (family members' Internet access) are strongly associated with Internet usage among the elderly, while regional Internet penetration rate appears to operate indirectly through micro-mechanisms. Analysis of the association with mental health showed that Internet use was related to a lower score of depressive tendency ( < 0.05), and this association remained robust after controlling for variables at the individual, family, and social levels. : The research results provide empirical evidence for the health promotion policies for the elderly, advocating the construction of a collaborative intervention framework of "individual ability improvement-intergenerational family support-social adaptation for the elderly" to bridge the digital divide and promote the digital integration of the elderly population in China.
中国正面临人口老龄化与数字化进程深度交织的双重挑战。老年群体的数字融入和心理健康问题日益凸显。本研究旨在通过多层次分析框架，剖析个体、家庭和社会因素影响老年人互联网使用的路径，考察互联网使用与心理健康之间的关联，为基于数字技术的老年心理健康干预项目提供实证依据，推动健康老龄化目标的科学实践。基于2021年中国综合社会调查（CGSS）数据和省级互联网发展指标，构建了混合横截面数据集。采用逻辑分层回归和OLS回归方法，系统探究老年群体中与互联网使用相关的多层次因素及其与心理健康的关联。结果表明，个体资源（年龄较小、教育水平较高、健康状况良好）和家庭技术支持（家庭成员可上网）与老年人的互联网使用密切相关，而区域互联网普及率似乎通过微观机制间接发挥作用。对与心理健康关联的分析表明，互联网使用与较低的抑郁倾向得分相关（<0.05），在控制个体、家庭和社会层面的变量后，这种关联依然稳健。研究结果为老年人健康促进政策提供了实证依据，倡导构建“提升个体能力—代际家庭支持—老年人社会适应”的协同干预框架，以弥合数字鸿沟，促进中国老年人口的数字融入。
