Examining the health impact of elderly ICT use in China

ABSTRACT

Information and communication technology (ICT) can play a prominent role in human development due to its significant health impact on elderly adults. Unlike previous research, which treats ICT use as a general concept, this study investigates two dimensions of ICT use (active and passive use), and it draws upon self-determination theory to explain the effects of ICT use on life satisfaction as well as health. Additionally, we explore the moderating effects of perceived isolation and ICT self-efficacy, on the relationship between ICT use and life satisfaction. We conducted a survey with 297 valid samples from elderly individuals in China to test our hypotheses. The results show that active ICT use can affect both life satisfaction and health status. We also found that, ICT self-efficacycan moderate the relationship between active/passive ICT use and life satisfaction. However, perceived isolation only moderates the relationship between passive ICT use and life satisfaction.

KEYWORDS:

• ICT use
• elderly
• perceived isolation
• self-determination theory
• life satisfaction

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the editors for their guidance and to the anonymous reviewers for their constructive suggestions. This study was partially funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (72125001, 72071054, 71871074).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China : [Grant Number 72125001]; National Natural Science Foundation of China: [Grant Number 71871074]; National Natural Science Foundation of China: [Grant Number 72071054].

Notes on contributors

Qianqian Zhang

Qianqian Zhang is a Ph.D candidate at the Harbin Institute of Technology. Her research interests include e-commerce and e-health. Her research has appeared in Psychology, Health & Medicine and 2020 PACIS Proceedings. She can be contacted via the email: [email protected].

Xitong Guo

Xitong Guo is a Professor of Information Systems at the Harbin Institute of Technology. His research focuses e-Health. He has published in journals such as MIS Quarterly, ISR, POM, JMIS, JAIS, among others. He can be contacted via the email: [email protected].

Douglas Vogel

Doug Vogel is a professor of information systems (IS) and director of the eHealth Research Institute of the Harbin Institute of Technology School of Management in China. He received his Ph.D. in business administration (management information systems) from the University of Minnesota. He has published widely and has been recognized as the most-cited IS author in the Asia- Pacific. He is engaged in introducing mobile devices and support for integrated collaborative applications in educational and health-care systems with a focus on well-being. He can be contacted via the email: [email protected]