ArticleFrontiers in public health2026
Digital government and residents' mental health in China: evidence on potential mechanisms and urban-rural heterogeneity.
Article in Frontiers in public health, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: Digital government has become a critical component of contemporary public governance, yet its relationship with residents' mental health remains insufficiently examined. This study investigates whether digital government development is associated with residents' mental health in China and how this association varies across urban and rural populations. Methods: We linked the 2020 and 2022 provincial Digital Government Development Indices with individual-level data from the 2021 and 2023 waves of the Chinese General Social Survey. Employing a one-period lagged matching strategy within a pooled cross-sectional design, we estimated the association using Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) models. Instrumental variable (IV) estimation was used to address potential endogeneity concerns, supplemented by robustness checks, mechanism analysis, and heterogeneity analysis. Results: Digital government development is positively and consistently associated with residents' mental health. Mechanism analyses suggest that reduced health-related activity limitations and enhanced life happiness may serve as two potential transmission pathways. This positive association appears more stable among rural residents, although the statistical significance of the urban-rural difference should be interpreted cautiously. Further heterogeneity analysis indicates that the association is more evident among individuals with higher human capital, fewer health constraints, and stronger capacity to use digital public services. Conclusion: Digital government may have implications beyond administrative efficiency by being linked to residents' mental health, health capabilities, and psychological resources. To foster inclusive digital governance, policymakers should prioritize health service integration, digital accessibility, service usability, and offline support for vulnerable and structurally disadvantaged groups.
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.