Background Income inequality is one of the important reflections of the unbalanced development of the world economy and can have adverse effects on physical and mental health. Methods This article used the 2018 China Family Panel Studies Database as an empirical analysis data source. The Kakwani index (KI) was used to measure income inequality, and social capital was broken into cognitive social capital and structural social capital. Our assessment was conducted by using STATA16 software for ordered logistic regression, verifying income inequality, social capital on correlation between physical and mental health firstly; then by gradual regression methods to verify intermediary effect, and demonstrate the social capital as an intermediary variable affecting physical and mental health as income inequality. Result The income inequality has a significant negative effect on physical and mental health (β = − 0.964, − 0.381; OR = 0.382, 0.758; P < 0.01), Social capital has a significant effect on physical and mental health (Cognitive SC(MH): β = 0.146 and 0.104, OR = 1.157 and 1.110, P < 0.01; Cognitive SC(PH): β = 0.046 and 0.069, OR = 1.047 and 1.071, P < 0.01; Structural SC(MH): β = − 0.005, 0.025 and 0.015, OR = 0.995, 1.025 and 1.015, P > 0.1, P < 0.01 and P < 0.01; Structural SC(PH): β = − 0.026, 0.009 and − 0.013, OR = 0.975, 1.009 and 0.987, P < 0.01, P > 0.1 and P < 0.01). Our analysis also showed that social capital (cognitive social capital and structural social capital) has an intermediary effect on physical and mental health due to income inequality. Conclusion This study shows that income inequality can not only directly affect physical and mental health, but also through social capital intermediary utility indirectly affect physical and mental health, social capital has positive effects on physical and mental health. At the same time, income inequality and social capital’s effects on physical and mental health exist regional differences, urban-rural differences, and gender differences. Therefore, in the development of special policies to support and take care of vulnerable groups, special attention needs to be paid to poor rural areas and female groups.
BackgroundThe development of Internet information technology will generate an Internet use gap, which will have certain adverse effects on health, but internet information dependence can alleviate these negative effects.ObjectiveThis article is to demonstrate the negative impact of the internet use gap on population health in developing countries and to propose improvement paths.MethodsThis article used the 2018 China Family Tracking Survey database (N = 11086). The research first used Latent class analysis (LCA) to identify potential categories of users with different Internet usage situations, then used the Bolck, Croon, and Hagenaars (BCH) method to perform latent class modeling with a continuous distal outcome, and finally built an intermediary model about Internet information dependence based on the model constraint function in Mplus software.Results(1) The Internet users can be divided into light-life users (C1: N = 1,061, 9.57%), all-around users (N = 1,980, 17.86%(C2: N = 1,980, 17.86%), functional users (C3: N = 1,239, 11.18%), and pure-life users (C4: N = 6,806, 61.39%). (2) We examined individual characteristics, social characteristics and different living habits, and health differences between the latent classes. For example, there are certain structural differences on the effect of different categories of Internet use on health (C1: M = 3.089, SE = 0.040; C2: M = 3.151, SE = 0.037; C3: M = 3.070, SE = 0.035; C4: M = 2.948, SE = 0.016; P < 0.001). (3) The Internet use gap can affect health through the indirect path of Internet information dependence, and some of the mediation effects are significant. When the functional user group (C3) was taken as the reference group, the mediating effect values of light-life users (C1) and all-around users (C4) on health were −0.050 (SE = 0.18, Est./SE = −3.264, P = 0.001) and −0.080 (SE = 0.010, Est./SE = −8.412, P = 0.000) through Internet information dependence, respectively. However, the effect of categories on health was not significant after adding indirect paths.ConclusionThe Internet use gap has a significant effect on health, and Internet information dependence plays an intermediary role in this effect path. The study proposes that attention should be paid to the diversified development of Internet use, the positive guiding function of Internet information channels should be made good use of, and the countermeasures and suggestions of marginalized groups in the digital age should also be paid attention to and protected.
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