Media Use, Cognitive Performance, and Life Satisfaction of the Chinese Elderly

ABSTRACT

Media use and aging is an important interdisciplinary topic pertaining to communication, gerontology, and psychology, among others. Integrating research on media-induced recovery and life satisfaction, the present study examined media uses and effects in the context of health and aging. Specifically, data from a large random sample were analyzed to investigate the relationships between media use, cognitive performance, and life satisfaction among the Chinese elderly. Results, in general, lent support to the slightly modified structural model. Specifically, media-induced recovery outcomes can be categorized into proximate (e.g., cognitive performance), intermediate (e.g., health satisfaction), and distal levels (e.g., life satisfaction). Also, situational factors (e.g., disease history) had statistically significant effects on media-induced recovery outcomes. Theoretical and practical implications of the research findings were discussed, and future research directions were suggested.

Funding

This research uses data from China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS). We thank the National Institute of Nutrition and Food Safety, China Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Carolina Population Center (5 R24 HD050924), the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the National Institutes of Health (NIH: R01-HD30880, DK056350, R24 HD050924, and R01-HD38700), and the Fogarty International Center, NIH, for financial support for the CHNS data collection and analysis files from 1989 to 2011 and future surveys, and the China–Japan Friendship Hospital, Ministry of Health, for support for CHNS 2009. We also are grateful for the support from the NSSFC (13CXW019).

Notes

¹ More information on the key variables, including disease history, cognitive performance, health satisfaction, and life satisfaction, as well as their relationships with demographic variables, is available from the corresponding author.

Additional information

Funding

This research uses data from China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS). We thank the National Institute of Nutrition and Food Safety, China Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Carolina Population Center (5 R24 HD050924), the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the National Institutes of Health (NIH: R01-HD30880, DK056350, R24 HD050924, and R01-HD38700), and the Fogarty International Center, NIH, for financial support for the CHNS data collection and analysis files from 1989 to 2011 and future surveys, and the China–Japan Friendship Hospital, Ministry of Health, for support for CHNS 2009. We also are grateful for the support from the NSSFC (13CXW019).