ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Aging and Public Health
This article is part of the Research TopicPublic Health Outcomes: The Role of Social Security Systems in Improving Residents' Health Welfare, Volume IIView all 28 articles
Digital Literacy and Its Effects on Older Adults' Health: Exploring Mechanisms and Outcomes
Provisionally accepted
- 1School of Physical Education, Northwest Minzu University, Lanzhou, China
- 2School of Physical Education, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, Chengdu, China
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In response to population aging, the Chinese government has prioritized enhancing the age-friendly adaptation of digital technologies. Digital information technologies have become essential instruments for promoting social engagement among older adults and for delivering health services. This study investigates whether digital literacy effectively improves physical and mental health in the aging population. Using longitudinal data from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS, 2016–2022), we employ two-way fixed effects models and mechanism analysis to empirically examine the impact of digital literacy on health outcomes while identifying underlying mechanisms and heterogeneous effects. Key findings reveal that: (1) Digital literacy significantly improves both physical and psychological health among older adults. (2) These health gains are primarily mediated through enhanced social support networks and the adoption of healthier lifestyles. (3) The health benefits exhibit significant variation across educational attainment, gender, and health status. These findings offer novel theoretical and empirical insights for advancing healthy aging initiatives.
Keywords: Digital Literacy, older adults, physical and mental health, social support, healthy lifestyles
Received: 19 Jul 2025; Accepted: 24 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Yang, Xu and Chen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Shu Yang
Wenjie Xu
Kang Chen
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