Examining the Impact of Digital Inclusion on Depression Among Older Adults in China: Mediating Role of Noncognitive Abilities.

IF 5.8 2区 医学 Q1 HEALTH CARE SCIENCES & SERVICES
Xinru Li, Chengyu Chen, Xiyan Li, Yuyang Li, Shujuan Xiao, Jianan Han, Yanan Wang, Chichen Zhang
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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Background: In the digital and intelligent era, a considerable number of older adults in China still have a low level of digital inclusion. Although existing literature has explored the relationship between the use of the internet and depression among older adults to some extent, it mainly focused on surface aspects rather than delving into the underlying mechanism of action among digital inclusion, depression, and noncognitive abilities, which remains unclear.

Objective: This study aims to explore the mediating role of noncognitive abilities between digital inclusion and depression among older adults in China, as well as the parallel mediating roles of each dimension of the Big Five personality traits in the relationship between them.

Methods: We extracted cross-sectional data from a nationally representative survey, namely the China Family Panel Studies, which centered on older adults (aged 60 years or older). The Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D 8), which consists of 8 items, was used to determine the presence of depression. The 15-item short version of the Big Five Personality Scale was used to measure the noncognitive abilities of older adults. Model 4 of the PROCESS macro (Andrew F. Hayes) program was applied to test, respectively, the mediating role of noncognitive abilities between digital inclusion and depression status, as well as the parallel mediating roles of each dimension of the Big Five personality traits in the relationship between them.

Results: This study found that digital inclusion was negatively related to depression in older adults (β=-.054, t6545=-4.804; P<.01). After adding noncognitive abilities as a mediating variable, depression was found to be negatively related to digital inclusion (β=-.022, t6544=-1.972; P<.05). Noncognitive abilities play a significant mediating role in the relationship between the level of digital inclusion and depression, and their effect accounts for 59.44% of the total effect. In the parallel mediation model, conscientiousness, extraversion, openness, and emotional stability all partially mediated the association between digital inclusion and depression. The parallel mediation effects of conscientiousness (β=-.0045, 95% CI -0.0068 to -0.0024; P<.05), extraversion (β=-.0067, 95% CI -0.0096 to -0.0043; P<.05), openness (β=.0085, 95% CI 0.0042 to 0.0128; P<.05), and emotional stability (β=-.0073, 95% CI -0.0131 to -0.0017; P<.05) of noncognitive abilities in the relationship between digital inclusion and depression were significant, accounting for 8.33%, 12.41%, -15.74%, and 13.52% of the total effect, respectively.

Conclusions: Our results demonstrate that digital inclusion is a negative predictor of depression among older adults, and noncognitive abilities play a partial mediating role between digital inclusion and depression status. Moreover, conscientiousness, extraversion, openness, and emotional stability of the Big Five personality traits have parallel mediating effects between digital inclusion and depression status.

数字包容对中国老年人抑郁的影响:非认知能力的中介作用
背景:在数字化和智能化时代,中国相当一部分老年人的数字包容水平仍然很低。虽然现有文献已经在一定程度上探讨了老年人使用互联网与抑郁之间的关系,但它们主要集中在表面方面,而不是深入研究数字包容、抑郁和非认知能力之间的潜在作用机制,这一点尚不清楚。目的:本研究旨在探讨非认知能力在中国老年人数字包容与抑郁之间的中介作用,以及大五人格特质各维度在两者关系中的平行中介作用。方法:我们从一项具有全国代表性的调查中提取横断面数据,即中国家庭小组研究,该调查以老年人(60岁或以上)为中心。流行病学研究中心抑郁量表(ces - d8)由8个项目组成,用于确定抑郁症的存在。大五人格量表的15项简短版本被用来衡量老年人的非认知能力。采用PROCESS宏观(Andrew F. Hayes)程序的模型4分别检验非认知能力在数字包容与抑郁状态之间的中介作用,以及五大人格特质各维度在它们之间关系中的平行中介作用。结果:本研究发现数字包容与老年人抑郁呈负相关(β=-)。054年,t6545 = -4.804;P6544 = -1.972;结论:数字包容是老年人抑郁的负向预测因子,非认知能力在数字包容与抑郁状态之间起部分中介作用。大五人格特质的严谨性、外向性、开放性和情绪稳定性在数字包容与抑郁状态之间具有平行中介作用。
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来源期刊
CiteScore
14.40
自引率
5.40%
发文量
654
审稿时长
1 months
期刊介绍: The Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR) is a highly respected publication in the field of health informatics and health services. With a founding date in 1999, JMIR has been a pioneer in the field for over two decades. As a leader in the industry, the journal focuses on digital health, data science, health informatics, and emerging technologies for health, medicine, and biomedical research. It is recognized as a top publication in these disciplines, ranking in the first quartile (Q1) by Impact Factor. Notably, JMIR holds the prestigious position of being ranked #1 on Google Scholar within the "Medical Informatics" discipline.
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