Abstract
BACKGROUND: With the continuous deepening of global aging, improving the health level of the elderly has become one of the most critical issues. Health investment behavior is the key for middle-aged and elderly people (over 45 years old) to prevent future health risks. This study aims to explore the relationship between Internet use and health investment behavior among middle-aged and elderly people. METHODS: A hypothesis model was constructed to explore the impact of internet usage on the health investment behavior of middle-aged and elderly people. The research was based on the data of 17,813 middle-aged and elderly people aged 45 and above from the 2018 China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study. Quantitative analysis and fixed-effect models were employed to investigate the relationship between internet usage and the health investment behavior of middle-aged and elderly people. RESULTS: The use of the Internet has a significant positive impact on the health investment behavior of middle-aged and elderly people, specifically manifested as a 4.2% increase in the probability of health investment and a 29.8% increase in the scale of health investment. This effect is statistically significant at the 1% level. The accumulation of health information capital plays a mediating role in the relationship between Internet use and the health investment behavior of middle-aged and elderly people, while educational attainment plays a moderating role in this process. In addition, the impact of Internet use on the health investment behavior of middle-aged and elderly people is heterogeneous, and this difference is mainly reflected in factors such as place of residence, income level, and age. Overall, Internet use has a more significant impact on the health investment behavior of urban residents, those with better economic conditions, and younger groups. CONCLUSION: The positive impact of Internet usage on the health investment behavior of middle-aged and elderly people is of great significance. The Internet can provide more opportunities for middle-aged and elderly people to obtain health information. The more they seek health information capital, the more obvious the effect of promoting health investment behavior will be.