Objectives
The internet is increasingly commonly used by older adults. However, it remains controversial in the literature on whether older people are more or less lonely with internet adoption. The current paper aims to test the longitudinal association of internet use and loneliness and to theorize the relationship by examining the mediating effect of social contact.
Method
This study employed data from 2006, 2010, and 2014 waves of the Health and Retirement Study. Loneliness was measured with the three-item UCLA loneliness scale, social contact was operationalized as contact frequency with family and friends, and internet use was measured using a self-assessed dichotomous item. Longitudinal associations and mediation effects were tested using hierarchical linear modeling.
Results
Internet use was associated with decreased loneliness over an 8-year period (b = −0.049, p < .001) and more social contact (b = 0.285, p < .001), which was related to lower perceived loneliness (b = -0.088, p < .001). On a scale ranges from 0 to 2 (0=never lonely, 2=often lonely), the total effect of internet use on loneliness was −0.060, and the mediated effect was −0.025.
Discussion
These findings imply that internet use may be an effective tool for reducing loneliness in older people by maintaining social contact.
Background
Internet intervention in Chinese University students would be a possible approach to overcome the gap between high rate of depression and high rates of underdiagnosis and undertreatment. As a popular measure of screening, the feasibility and user satisfaction of Patient Health Questionnaire-9 items for online program were tested.
Methods
The subjects were enrolled based on an email list from the students' office of a Chinese University, and 300 undergraduate students were randomly invited. Of which, 230 (76.7%) students were willing to participate in the study and completed the first test. After 2 weeks, a subsample of 150 (65.2%) subjects were randomly chosen to retake the test for the test–retest reliability. And 81 (35.2%) among the 230 subjects were randomly selected to undergo the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI) within 48 h. Among 150 subjects, 120 (52.2%) completed client satisfaction questionnaire about this online screening program.
Results
(1) The Cronbach's alpha was 0.80 and the test-retest reliability was 0.78; (2) the optimal cutoff score of 10 revealed a sensitivity of 0.74, specificity of 0.85, with an area under the curve of 0.897 (95% confidence interval: 0.823–0.970); (3) the mean duration of administration was 3.5 min; and (4) satisfaction with the online screening program was highly appreciated.
Conclusions
The results indicated potential value of the online screening program for further Internet-administrated programs of depression among Chinese University students.
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