The effect of smartphones on the self-rated health levels of the elderly

BACKGROUND: Due to the penetration of Internet use and the popularity of “Internet + elderly care” among seniors in recent years, the elderly are gradually integrating into the information society. This study examined the impact of smartphones on the self-rated health levels of the elderly. METHODS: We studied 3042 elderly people over 55 years of age in Jiangxi, China in 2018. The effect of smartphones was measured from three aspects: smartphone usage, smartphone usage ability, and smartphone usage purpose, and the multivariate ordered logistic model was applied. Furthermore, considering the potential endogeneity of the smartphone usage of elderly people, the propensity score matching (PSM) method was used to analyze the net effect of smartphones on the health levels of the elderly. RESULTS: (1) The use of smartphones had a significant positive impact on the self-rated health levels of the elderly, with its significance being at the level of 1%. Smartphone usage ability, and using smartphone to learn or search for health information, had significant positive impacts (at the level of 5%) on the self-rated health levels of the elderly. (2) The k-nearest neighbor matching, kernel matching and radius matching methods were used to calculate the net effect of smartphone usage on the self-rated health levels of the elderly. The results were 13.26, 15.33 and 14.80%, respectively. (3) The age of the participants significantly (at the level of 1%) negatively affected their self-rated health levels. Other characteristics of the elderly, including income, education level, living with children or spouse and children’s living conditions, significantly (all at the level of 1%) positively affected their self-rated health levels. CONCLUSIONS: Smartphone usage, smartphone usage ability, and smartphone usage purposes all improved the self-rated health of the elderly. The Internet factor should be focused on in the process of active aging. We should improve the Internet use ability of the elderly through voluntary training or public lectures.