ReviewPrimary health care research & development2020
Impact of the use of the internet on quality of life in older adults: review of literature.
Review in Primary health care research & development, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 52 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
52 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 113 citations in OpenAlex.
- Positive association between Internet use and mental health among adults aged ≥50 years in 23 countries.Nature human behaviour · 2025Pooled it
- Machine learning classification of digital exclusion in ageing populations across five international cohorts.NPJ digital medicine · 2026Article
- Perspectives of French community-dwelling older adults on the use of digital services: a qualitative study based on interviews.BMC geriatrics · 2026Article
- The association between Internet use and successful aging among Chinese older adults: a propensity score matching study.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Effects of a Community-Based Multi-Component Intervention on Subjective Well-Being in Older Adults: The Chofu-Digital-Choju Project in Japan.Geriatrics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Internet Use and Self-Rated Health Among Older Adults: Scoping Review.Interactive journal of medical research · 2026Review
- Associations between technology use, perceived burdensomeness, and independence among rural older adults.BMC geriatrics · 2026Article
- The impact of internet use on physical activity among Chinese older women: the mediating role of social support and intrinsic motivation.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Effects of Screen-Based Leisure Time on 24 Subsequent Health and Wellbeing Outcomes: A Longitudinal Outcome-Wide Analysis.International journal of behavioral medicine · 2025Article
- Personal online social networks as moderators of the association between loneliness and quality of life in Polish adults aged 50.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Gender Differences in the Digital Divide, Digital Back-Feeding, and Health-Related Quality of Life Among Rural Older Adults: Cross-Sectional Study.JMIR aging · 2025Article
- Internet Usage, Social Participation, and Depression Symptoms Among Middle-Aged and Older Adult Chinese Individuals Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Evidence From the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Observational Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Observational
- Effect of patterns of social activities on depressive symptoms among older adults in china: a latent class analysis of CHARLS.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Depressive symptoms and internet use among middle-aged and older adults pre- and post-COVID-19 outbreak: a network analysis.BMC psychology · 2025Article
- A Technology-Based Intervention Impacts Quality of Life for Low-Income Older Adults by Reducing Loneliness and Improving Healthcare Self-Efficacy and Self-Rated Health.Journal of applied gerontology : the official journal of the Southern Gerontological Society · 2025Article
- Internet usage elevates elderly obesity: evidence from a difference-in-differences analysis of the broadband China policy.Archives of public health = Archives belges de sante publique · 2025Article
- Impact of Internet Usage on Depression Among Older Adults: Comprehensive Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Article
- How Internet use relates to mental health in older adults: findings from the Czech Republic and the Republic of Slovenia.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- The impact of internet use on physical activity among Chinese older adults: the mediating role of social support.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Exploring the impact of internet use on cognitive abilities in the older adults: evidence from the CHARLS 2020 database.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
aimGiven the paucity of data on the use of internet and quality of life (QoL), this literature review aimed to identify the motivations and barriers for internet use and the impact on QoL on older adults using the internet.
backgroundEven though older adults are increasingly using information technology, the numbers remain quite small globally. Currently published research primarily focuses on the various ways and methods of information technology use by older adults and the factors influencing use rather than on the impact of information technology on QoL of older adults.
methodsThe studies included in this literature review were searched in three databases: WEB of Science, GoogleScholar and PubMed. English language articles were searched using the terms 'older', 'elderly', 'senior', 'well-being', 'life satisfaction', 'quality of life', 'internet' and "computer".
findingsThe review demonstrated the association of internet use on QoL in older adults. The majority of the studies substantiate the advantages of internet use by older adults including the ability to communicate with family and friends, maintain a wide social network, have access to information and participate in online leisure activities. There are some studies, though less in number, which did not find a relationship between well-being and use of internet by older adults. The policy implications of this review advocate a multidimensional strategy to support internet use by the older people incorporating internet training and education, financial issues, technical support and access needs to be developed.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.