A team of researchers led by Qi Yanling, a professor at Nankai University in Tianjin, analysed data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study, an ongoing panel survey that focuses on Chinese residents aged 45 and older.

In studies conducted in 2018 and again in 2020, researchers examined the relationship between social media use and symptoms of depression. They explored associations between the baseline social media activities of 9,121 respondents who did not report depressive symptoms in 2018, and the social media activities and depressive symptoms they reported over the following two years.

During the same period, they also evaluated whether social media use, including the use of online chat, gaming and shopping platforms, could help alleviate symptoms of depression among the 5,302 surveyed individuals who reported such symptoms in 2018.

Among respondents who initially reported no symptoms of depression, engaging in social media activities was associated with a 24% lower likelihood of developing such symptoms.

Among those who had reported symptoms in 2018, respondents who engaged in three or more of the seven measured social media activities – chatting, reading the news, watching videos, playing games, mobile payments, using WeChat, and posting WeChat moments – over the two-year period were 1.24 times more likely to revert to a non-depressive state compared to those who did not use social media.

Furthermore, individuals who were constantly active on social media, engaging in social media activities in 2018 and 2020, were 1.36 times more likely to experience a positive shift.

Qi noted that due to China’s rapidly ageing society, the problem of depression among elderly people will become more prominent. She suggested that special attention be paid to vulnerable groups, especially elderly people, women, and low-income and rural residents.

Official statistics show that 297 million Chinese people were aged 60 or above last year, accounting for 21.1% of the total population. According to the National Health Commission, the prevalence rate of depression in China was 2.1% in 2019, and that of anxiety disorders was 4.98%.