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. 2025 Aug 26;25:662. doi: 10.1186/s12877-025-06337-2

Table 2.

The characteristics of the population after propensity score matching

CHARLS HRS ELSA
digital inclusion digital exclusion Standardized diff. digital inclusion digital exclusion Standardized diff. digital inclusion digital exclusion Standardized diff.
N 266 2660 4700 4700 1428 714
Age 65.33 ± 4.84 67.42 ± 7.63 0.3267 68.00 ± 7.11 69.29 ± 8.03 0.1698 66.47 ± 5.47 66.57 ± 5.66 0.0176
Gender 0.1336 0.0236 0.0702
Male 116 (43.6) 1337 (50.3) 2699 (57.4) 2644 (56.3) 728 (51) 389 (54.5)
Female 150 (56.4) 1323 (49.7) 2001 (42.6) 2056 (43.7) 700 (49) 325 (45.5)
Education
Less than lower secondary education 233 (87.6) 2420 (91) 0.1096 352 (7.5) 678 (14.4) 0.2234 130 (9.1) 74 (10.4) 0.0425
Upper secondary & vocational training 32 (12) 223 (8.4) 0.1207 3353 (71.3) 3191 (67.9) 0.0750 1049 (73.5) 520 (72.8) 0.0142
Tertiary education 1 (0.4) 17 (0.6) 0.0370 995 (21.2) 831 (17.7) 0.0883 249 (17.4) 120 (16.8) 0.0167
Marital/partnered status 0.1295 0.1455 0.0273
Unmarried/Divorced/widowed/others 43 (16.2) 564 (21.2) 1978 (42.1) 1646 (35) 452 (31.7) 217 (30.4)
Married/with a partner 223 (83.8) 2096 (78.8) 2722 (57.9) 3054 (65) 976 (68.3) 497 (69.6)
Employment status 0.0008 0.0791 0.0294
No 145 (54.5) 1451 (54.5) 3259 (69.3) 3085 (65.6) 1007 (70.5) 513 (71.8)
Yes 121 (45.5) 1209 (45.5) 1441 (30.7) 1615 (34.4) 421 (29.5) 201 (28.2)
Cohabitation with children 0.2240 0.1510 0.0240
No 149 (56) 1194 (44.9) 2363 (50.3) 2010 (42.8) 1118 (78.3) 566 (79.3)
Yes 117 (44) 1466 (55.1) 2337 (49.7) 2690 (57.2) 310 (21.7) 148 (20.7)
Self-rated health 0.0049 0.0360 0.0239
ill-health 79 (29.7) 784 (29.5) 1846 (39.3) 1929 (41) 655 (45.9) 319 (44.7)
health 187 (70.3) 1876 (70.5) 2854 (60.7) 2771 (59) 773 (54.1) 395 (55.3)
Income
low 36 (13.5) 499 (18.8) 0.1424 1342 (28.6) 1460 (31.1) 0.0549 420 (29.4) 223 (31.2) 0.0396
medium 90 (33.8) 779 (29.3) 0.0980 1889 (40.2) 1819 (38.7) 0.0305 492 (34.5) 249 (34.9) 0.0088
high 140 (52.6) 1382 (52) 0.0135 1469 (31.3) 1421 (30.2) 0.0221 516 (36.1) 242 (33.9) 0.0470
loneliness 0.0977 0.0482 0.0565
No 204 (76.7) 1927 (72.4) 3539 (75.3) 3440 (73.2) 1141 (79.9) 554 (77.6)
Yes 62 (23.3) 733 (27.6) 1161 (24.7) 1260 (26.8) 287 (20.1) 160 (22.4)

CHARLS China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study,HRS Health and Retirement Study,ELSA English Longitudinal Study of Aging

Continuous variables were expressed as mean±standard deviation (SD) in case of normal distribution and categorical variables are presented as counts (percentages)

CHARLS (1:10 ratio, caliper=0.01), HRS (1:1 ratio, caliper=0.01), and ELSA (1:2 ratio, caliper=0.01)