Surfing the Internet can improve the mental health of people over 50

the internet use seems to reduce symptoms related to depression in people over 50. This is the conclusion of a large international study that collected data on the mental health of adults from several countries.

The point was the information that mental health problems among middle-aged and older people are a global concern. A few years ago there was an assessment bulletin according to that about 14 percent of people over the age of 55 have had mental health problems such as depression.

A report by researchers from two Hong Kong universities was published Nature Human Behaviour in the journal. The researchers had access to health data on almost 88,000 people from 23 countries.

Among other things, a European was used Share databasewhich, according to Väestöliitto, is a truly comparable source for comparing the health and living conditions of Europeans over 50.

Taste in three, i.e. the United States, England and China, it was found that the more the subjects used the Internet, the better they seemed to feel mentally.

“It would seem it looks like a good study, with large data covering many countries and a longitudinal design”, says the research professor Tarja Heponiemi From the Institute of Health and Welfare (THL). According to him, the research shows that internet use is connected to less depression, greater life satisfaction and better self-assessed health.

Internet use also seemed to benefit especially those over 65 who had fewer social contacts. They may be highly educated and employed, but they may also be poor or have chronic ailments.

Especially those who used the internet daily or weekly had fewer references to symptoms of depression. They also rated their health as better than those who were online rarely or not at all.

Research according to the release, the internet has become important for middle-aged and older people. It was observed during the corona pandemic, when more and more adults spent time online.

One of the authors of the study is a doctoral student Yan Luo tells Research Communities – website, how far away the grandfather is to keep in touch with him online. According to the researcher, online services can reduce the loneliness of the elderly and increase well-being.

“The Internet offers many opportunities to expand your life. You can keep in touch with relatives and friends, visit foreign countries virtually and even follow blogs,” confirms THL’s Heponiemi.

All the elderly do not benefit from the Internet in the same way, Heponiemi reminds, especially when we are already talking about pensioners.

In a recent study, it might not come up, because it seems that in the initial phase of the longitudinal study, it asked about the use of the internet, and in the follow-up survey, a connection was found with reported mental health from a very wide range of material.

In Finland, THL has studied the internet use of the elderly from the opposite direction. It’s cleared up in the study for example, how the restrictions brought by aging distance people from the internet.

the internet usage seems to decrease after the age of 60, at least in Finland – although this does not apply to those who have digital skills.

However, after the age of 80 at the latest, the ability to function digitally usually begins to decline, says Heponiemi. Deterioration of sight and hearing and control of movements and deterioration of cognitive skills make it difficult to use the devices.

“Digital marginalization is like a new feature of social disadvantage,” says Heponiemi.

Poverty, haggling over food and giving up doctor visits can lead to the experience that even digital services are not useful.

And if an aging person is left alone, he may rather reduce his use of the internet, according to a Finnish study, Heponiemi sums up. On the other hand, if people were satisfied with their social relationships, they experienced more benefits related to health and participation from using the Internet.

Fresh in the study, the prevalence of Internet use among the adult population varied greatly in different countries. Based on the data, there were only a good two percent of older users in China, while almost 85 percent of users in Denmark were over 50 years old.

In Finland, in a THL study a few years ago, one in three people over the age of 70 did not do business online at all, some did business with assistance, and only one in two did business independently.