IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nathum/v9y2025i1d10.1038_s41562-024-02048-7.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Positive association between Internet use and mental health among adults aged ≥50 years in 23 countries

Author

Listed:
  • Yan Luo

    (City University of Hong Kong)

  • Paul Siu Fai Yip

    (The University of Hong Kong
    The University of Hong Kong)

  • Qingpeng Zhang

    (The University of Hong Kong
    The University of Hong Kong)

Abstract

The Internet is increasingly important in addressing age-related mental health challenges. We used linear mixed models and meta-analyses to examine the association between Internet use and mental health among 87,559 adults aged ≥50 years from 23 countries. Internet use was associated with fewer depressive symptoms (pooled average marginal effect (AME), −0.09; 95% confidence interval (CI), −0.12 to −0.07), higher life satisfaction (pooled AME, 0.07; 95% CI, 0.05 to 0.10) and better self-reported health (pooled AME, 0.15; 95% CI, 0.12 to 0.17). For two countries (the USA and England) with genetic data available, positive associations between Internet use and mental health were observed across three genetic risk categories. For three countries (the USA, England and China), a higher frequency of Internet use was related to better mental health. Our findings are relevant to public health policies and practices in promoting mental health in later life through the Internet, especially in countries with limited Internet access and mental health services.

Suggested Citation

  • Yan Luo & Paul Siu Fai Yip & Qingpeng Zhang, 2025. "Positive association between Internet use and mental health among adults aged ≥50 years in 23 countries," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 9(1), pages 90-100, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:nat:nathum:v:9:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41562-024-02048-7
    DOI: 10.1038/s41562-024-02048-7
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-024-02048-7
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41562-024-02048-7?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nathum:v:9:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41562-024-02048-7. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.