Social Support and Health Among Senior Internet Users: Results of an Online Survey

Noel, Jeffrey G.; Epstein, Joel

doi:10.1300/j017v21n03_03

Cited by 14 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…Earlier studies found that the use of the internet by older adults was a trend and a unique way to pursue mental health improvement. [15][16][17][18][19][20] Furthermore, some studies indicated that the use of the internet could promote the mental health of older adults by motivating them to lead healthier lifestyles and engage in more social activities. [21][22][23][24][25] Some empirical studies showed that a high level of internet use was positively associated with a high level of mental health status among older adults.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Relationship Between Internet Use and Mental Health Among Older Adults in China: The Mediating Role of Physical Exercise

Zhang¹,

Zhang²

2021

RMHP

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Objective Affected by internet applications, mental health among older adults has become an important public health issue in China. This study aimed to use cross-sectional data to explore how internet use affects mental health among older adults in China, along with the moderating role of physical exercise in the above relationship. Methods This study employed data from the Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS) conducted in 2017. In addition, OLS regression was adopted to explore the impacts of internet use on the mental health of older adults in China. Results Results from the cross-sectional data model showed that internet use had a statistically significant and positive correlation with the mental health of older adults. The regression result of the full sample showed that the regression coefficient of the influence of internet use on the mental health of the elderly was 0.114, which was significant at the 1% level. Furthermore, this study used mediating analysis to explore the possible underlying mechanism by which internet use influenced mental health status through physical exercise. Physical exercise played a mediating role in the relationship between internet use and mental health; the ratio of the indirect effect to total effect mediated was 0.272. It is important to note that the effect size of the indirect effect through physical exercise was quite large. Conclusion Our findings suggested that internet use was significantly associated with better mental health status for older Chinese residents, mediated by higher physical exercise frequency, which was consistent with China’s recent efforts to promote health governance with the “Internet Plus Exercise” campaign. Consequently, the government must encourage the development of more internet applications suitable for the elderly to increase their exercise frequency and ultimately improve their mental health. These results also provided insights for clinical solutions.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Relationship Between Internet Use and Mental Health Among Older Adults in China: The Mediating Role of Physical Exercise

Zhang¹,

Zhang²

2021

RMHP

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“…Second, the Internet offers an outlet to broaden and strengthen people’s social capital such as social networks and social support (Barbosa Neves, Franz, Judges, Beermann, & Baecker, 2017; Bargh & McKenna, 2004; Hogeboom, McDermott, Perrin, Osman, & Bell-Ellison, 2010; Wellman, Haase, & Witte, 2001), and social capital is found to be a channel that improves people’s healthy lifestyle (Chuang & Chuang, 2008; Lindström, Hanson, & Östergren, 2001; Poortinga, 2006; Shiovitz-Ezra & Litwin, 2012; Watt et al, 2014). Third, and conversely, excessive Internet use might occupy time and energy that would otherwise be spent on a healthy lifestyle, leading to a lack of exercising and healthy eating habits, obesity, and even serious physical and mental problems (Kim et al, 2010; Noel & Epstein, 2003). However, studies show that the negative effects of the Internet are mostly concentrated among younger users rather than older users (Chen & Persson, 2002; Forsman & Nordmyr, 2017; Zambianchi & Carelli, 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Do Internet Users Lead a Healthier Lifestyle?

Peng

Chan

2018

J Appl Gerontol

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Internet use has spread rapidly worldwide in recent years, but the proportion of older people who use it remains low in Taiwan. Meanwhile, due to population aging in the country, chronic diseases have become more prevalent among older people. This study explores the link between exposure to the Internet and adoption of a healthy lifestyle among the middle-aged and elderly people. Data are drawn from the Topic on Health of the 2011 Taiwan Social Change Survey. We use the logistic regression as the baseline model and apply the propensity-score weighting method to identify the effect of Internet use on exercising, vegetable and fruit eating, betel nut chewing, smoking, and heavy drinking. Our results show that people aged 40 years and older who use the Internet regularly are more likely to adopt an overall healthy lifestyle. The findings suggest that the Internet is a good channel to enhance people's health investment.

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“…Response categories ranged from 1 (excellent) to 5 (poor). This scale has been widely used to measure general physical health status (e.g., Hale, Hill, & Burdette, 2010;Kim, Dattilo, & Heo, 2011;Noel & Epstein, 2003). The item was reverse coded physical health; a higher score indicates a better positive self-rated physical health status.…”

Section: Dependent Variablementioning

confidence: 99%

The Contribution of Healthy Behaviors on Physical and Mental Health

Kim

Ellard²,

Dvorak³

et al. 2015

jsss

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Researchers show that healthy behaviors play an important role in improving physical and mental health. However, there is a little research that explores which healthy behavior factors would be more associated with physical and mental health. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships among three intensity levels of physical activity (e.g., walking, moderate exercise, and strenuous activity), smoking, the quality of sleep, and diet, and physical and mental health. The 2004 Survey of Texas Adults was used to investigate factors that influenced the relationship between healthy behaviors and self-rated physical health and mental health for this study. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis was used to examine the contribution of health behavior variables on self-rated physical health and mental health. The results of this study show that quality of sleep, strenuous activity, moderate exercise, tobacco use, and age were positively associated with physical health. In addition, quality of sleep, strenuous activity, tobacco use, and demographic factors (e.g., age and gender) served as predictors of mental health. This study indicates that healthy behaviors can serve as an important vehicle for improving physical and mental health. It also suggests that individuals who pursue and engage in healthy behaviors may maintain and develop health and wellbeing.

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Social Support and Health Among Senior Internet Users: Results of an Online Survey

Cited by 14 publications

References 23 publications

The Relationship Between Internet Use and Mental Health Among Older Adults in China: The Mediating Role of Physical Exercise

The Relationship Between Internet Use and Mental Health Among Older Adults in China: The Mediating Role of Physical Exercise

Do Internet Users Lead a Healthier Lifestyle?

The Contribution of Healthy Behaviors on Physical and Mental Health

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