Assessing the Impact of Internet Skills on Depressive Symptoms Among Chinese Middle-Aged and Older Adults: Cross-Sectional Instrumental Variables Analysis

Background: The potential benefits of IT for the well-being of older adults have been widely anticipated. However, findings regarding the impact of internet use on depressive symptoms are inconsistent. As a result of IT's exponential growth, internet skills have supplanted internet access as the source of the digital divide. Objective: This study evaluates the effect of internet skills on depressive symptoms through an instrumental variables (IV) approach. Methods: Data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study's wave 4 (2018) were used. This included 16,949 community residents aged 45 years and older. To overcome the endogeneity issue, we used an IV approach. Results: Our results reveal the emergence of a second-level digital divide, the disparity in internet skills, among Chinese middle-aged and older adults. Liner regression suggests that a 1% increase in internet skills is associated with a 0.037% decrease in depressive symptoms (beta=-.037, SE 0.009), which underestimates the causal effect. As expected, internet skills are an endogenous variable (F test P value <.001). IV regressions indicate that a 1% increase in internet skills reduces 1.135% (SE 0.471) to 1.741% (SE 0.297) of depressive symptoms. These 2 IV are neither weak (F-(1)=16.7 and 28.5; both >10) nor endogenous (Wu-Hausman test P value of .10; >.05 or >.01). Conclusions: Better mental health is predicted through improved and higher internet skills. Consequently, residents and policy makers in China should focus on bridging the digital divide in internet skills among middle-aged and older adults.