Association between using social media WeChat and depressive symptoms among middle-aged and older people: findings from a national survey

Abstract

Objectives We aimed to assess the characteristics and health status of a study sample using social media WeChat and to identify the association between social media usage and depressive symptoms among people aged 45 and older in China. Methods Data were drawn from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS). Depressive symptoms were measured by the 10-item form of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D-10). The propensity score matching method (PSM) was performed to balance the characteristics of WeChat users and non-WeChat users. Multilevel logistic regression was used to test the association between the incidence of depressive symptoms and WeChat usage by introducing covariates step by step. Sensitivity analysis was conducted to estimate the robustness of the primary findings. Results A total of 5415 matching cases out of 11,338 total sample were used in this study to generate the final analysis. A multilevel logistic regression model showed that a significantly lower incidence of depression was related to WeChat usage after adjusting for all possible covariates (OR: 0.76, 95% CI: 0.62–0.94). The most popular WeChat functions used by the study population were watching news (80.4%), posting Moment messages (75.5%), chatting with friends (66.0%), and watching videos (65.2%). The sensitivity analysis yielded similar findings to the primary analyses. Conclusions Using social media WeChat showed an association with lower depressive symptoms among people aged ≥45 and older in our study sample. Further studies need to be explored on the promotion and education of social media WeChat usage, targeting the improvement of mental health-related issues through social network connections.

Internet use and depressive symptoms among Chinese older adults: Two sides of internet use

“…Social media use in older adults can potentially improve mental health in older adults ( 33 – 35 ). Qu et al ( 34 ) used a multilevel logistic regression model for data analysis and found a significant reduction in the prevalence of depressive symptoms associated with WeChat use after adjusting for all possible covariates; the results of a review also found that online social networks can be used as a potential social therapy to alleviate depressive symptoms ( 35 ). Our findings reinforce previous findings, providing evidence that WeChat use is associated with lower CES-D scores, suggesting that social media use may be beneficial for depressive symptoms.…”

Association between WeChat Use and Memory Performance among Older Adults in China: The Mediating Role of Depression

“…This finding is consistent with previous studies [ 46 , 47 , 49 ]. For example, Qu et al analyzed a sample drawn from a cross-sectional survey of middle-aged and older people in China and found that a significantly lower incidence of depression was associated with social media usage [ 71 ]. Nonetheless, conflicting findings also exist in this field [ 44 , 45 ].…”

Factors Affecting the Use of Social Networks and Its Effect on Anxiety and Depression among Parents and Their Children: Predictors Using ML, SEM and Extended TAM

“…While ref. [ 1 , 2 , 18 , 19 ] studied depression in Saudi Arabia, China, the USA, and Scandinavia, respectively. While ref.…”

“…In [ 19 ], the researchers found that 95.4% of the study sample suffered from mild depression to severe depression due to the use of SN on smartphones and found that females are more affected than males. In [ 18 ], the research studied depression symptoms among users of WeChat in China. The study concluded “that using social media WeChat showed an association with lower depressive symptoms among people aged ≥45 and older in the study sample.” In [ 27 ], the research investigated the role of psychological factors on smartphone addiction proneness (SAP), namely anxiety and low self-control in Korea.…”

“…The motivation of this study is as follows. Many studies were conducted to investigate the negative effects of SN in many cultures, including India [ 17 ], USA [ 1 ], Spain [ 6 ], Scandinavia [ 2 ], China [ 18 ], and Latinos [ 14 ], but only one study was conducted in KSA which studied only depression [ 19 ] and in Lebanon which studied addiction [ 10 ]. Hence, there is a lack of studies on depression and anxiety in the SN-use arena in the Arabic-speaking world.…”