ArticleBMC geriatrics2022
Association between using social media WeChat and depressive symptoms among middle-aged and older people: findings from a national survey.
Article in BMC geriatrics, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers.
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Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed.
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- Social media use and depression among middle-aged and older Chinese adults: mediating roles of health literacy and perceived social support.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Identification of Potential Key Biomarkers for Comorbid Depression and Obesity Through Integrated Bioinformatics Analysis and Experimental Verification.Journal of inflammation research · 2026Article
- The bidirectional relationship between social participation, social media use and depressive symptoms: a nationwide longitudinal study.BMC public health · 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
- Late-Life Informal Social Participation, Physical and Cognitive Functions Among the Chinese Elderly: A Life Course Perspective.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- The Association Between Posting WeChat Moments and the Risk of Depressive Symptoms Among Middle-Aged and Older Chinese Adults: Prospective National Cohort Study.JMIR public health and surveillance · 2025Article
- Digital Exclusion and Depressive Symptoms among Older People: Findings from Five Aging Cohort Studies across 24 Countries.Health data science · 2025Article
- Article
- Associations between older adults' social media use behaviors and psychosocial well-being.Aging clinical and experimental research · 2023Article
- Multidimensional Internet Use, Social Participation, and Depression Among Middle-Aged and Elderly Chinese Individuals: Nationwide Cross-Sectional Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2023Article
- The correlation analysis of WeChat usage and depression among the middle-aged and elderly in China: the mediating role of social participation.BMC public health · 2023Article
- Internet use and depressive symptoms among Chinese older adults: Two sides of internet use.Frontiers in public health · 2023Article
- The effect of internet use on depressive symptoms in middle-aged and older adults with functional disability: the mediating role of social isolation.Frontiers in public health · 2023Article
- Factors Affecting the Use of Social Networks and Its Effect on Anxiety and Depression among Parents and Their Children: Predictors Using ML, SEM and Extended TAM.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- Association between WeChat Use and Memory Performance among Older Adults in China: The Mediating Role of Depression.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Article
- Internet media and depression in older adults experiencing pain: Evidence from a five-year longitudinal study (2018-2023).Digital healthArticle
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesWe aimed to assess the characteristics and health status of a study sample using social media WeChat and to identify the association between social media usage and depressive symptoms among people aged 45 and older in China.
methodsData were drawn from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS). Depressive symptoms were measured by the 10-item form of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D-10). The propensity score matching method (PSM) was performed to balance the characteristics of WeChat users and non-WeChat users. Multilevel logistic regression was used to test the association between the incidence of depressive symptoms and WeChat usage by introducing covariates step by step. Sensitivity analysis was conducted to estimate the robustness of the primary findings.
resultsA total of 5415 matching cases out of 11,338 total sample were used in this study to generate the final analysis. A multilevel logistic regression model showed that a significantly lower incidence of depression was related to WeChat usage after adjusting for all possible covariates (OR: 0.76, 95% CI: 0.62-0.94). The most popular WeChat functions used by the study population were watching news (80.4%), posting Moment messages (75.5%), chatting with friends (66.0%), and watching videos (65.2%). The sensitivity analysis yielded similar findings to the primary analyses.
conclusionsUsing social media WeChat showed an association with lower depressive symptoms among people aged ≥45 and older in our study sample. Further studies need to be explored on the promotion and education of social media WeChat usage, targeting the improvement of mental health-related issues through social network connections.
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