JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

The potential benefits of information technology for the well-being of older adults have been widely anticipated. However, findings regarding the impact of Internet use on depressive symptoms are inconsistent. As a result of IT’s exponential growth, Internet skills have supplanted Internet access as the source of the digital divide.

Objective:

This study evaluates the effect of Internet skills on depressive symptoms through the instrumental variables approach.

Methods:

Data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study’s wave 4 (2018) was used. This included 16,949 community residents aged 45 years and above. To overcome the endogeneity issue, we use an instrumental variables approach.

Results:

The results reveal the emergence of a second-level digital divide, the disparity in Internet skills, among Chinese middle-aged and older adults. Liner regression suggests that a 1% increase in Internet skills is associated with 0.037% decrease in depressive symptoms (β = -0.037, SE = 0.009), which underestimates the causal effect. As expected, Internet skills are an endogenous variable (F test p-value < 0.001). IV regressions indicate that a 1% increase in Internet skills reduces 1.135% (SE = 0.471) to 1.741% (SE = 0.297) depressive symptoms. Two instrumental variables are neither weak (F value 16.7 and 28.5 > 10) nor endogenous (Wu-Hausman test p-value 0.095 > 0.05 or 0.01).

Conclusions:

Better mental health is predicted through improved and higher Internet skills. Consequently, residents and policymakers in China should focus on bridging the digital divide in Internet skills amongst middle-aged and older adults. Clinical Trial: Not applicable.