Health Consequences of Online Social Capital among Middle-Aged and Older Adults in China

With the rapid development of Internet techniques in China, more and more Chinese middle-aged and older adults have begun to use the Internet for their daily social interactions, and the resulting online social capital may affect their health. Using data from the Chinese General Social Survey of 2017 (n = 7733, aged 45–90 years old), this study investigated the influence of online social capital on the health of middle-aged and older adults in China, and the Heckman sample selection model was used to address potential sample selection bias in Internet use. The results show that number of online contacts significantly improved the physical health of middle-aged and older adults, while the level of depression was significantly reduced by online closeness of non-specific relationships, but more online interactions may slightly increase their depression. Furthermore, more online contacts were associated with elevated physical health among male, rural, less-educated and middle-aged adults, while more online closeness of non-specific relationships was associated with less depression in almost all subgroups. Online social capital can improve the health of middle-aged and older adults in China, so we should help increase older adults’ access to the Internet and improve their Internet skills to give full play to the positive health effect of online social capital. However, it should be alert to the negative health consequences caused by excessive Internet use.