Digital empowerment: Can the development of the smart health and elderly care enhance older adults’ subjective well-being?

Objectives The development of the smart health and elderly care has profoundly changed older adults’ daily lives and health outcomes. However, the impact of the smart health and elderly care on older adults’ subjective well-being remain unclear. This study aims to analyze the impact of smart health and elderly care on older adults’ subjective well-being and its inequality and further explore the potential mechanisms and heterogeneity. Methods This study employs the smart health and elderly care policy as a quasi-natural experiment, using the China Family Panel Studies panel data ( N = 23,878) and a staggered difference-in-differences method to investigate the causal impact of smart health and elderly care development on older adults’ subjective well-being and its inequality. Results As expected, the smart health and elderly care policy significantly improves older adults’ self-rated health ( B = 0.086, 95% CI 0.037–0.135, p < 0.01) and life satisfaction ( B = 0.058, 95% CI 0.022–0.094, p < 0.01) while reducing depressive symptoms ( B = −0.538, 95% CI −0.715 to −0.362, p < 0.01) among older adults. Furthermore, the policy helps alleviate inequalities in self-rated health ( B = −0.012, 95% CI −0.021 to −0.003, p < 0.05), life satisfaction ( B = −0.011, 95% CI −0.017 to −0.005, p < 0.01), and depressive symptoms ( B = −0.018, 95% CI −0.025 to −0.012, p < 0.01). Mechanism analysis further suggests that intergenerational support, digital literacy, and health habits play vital mediating roles in enhancing subjective well-being and alleviating its inequality among older adults. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that the policy's positive effects are more pronounced among men, rural residents, middle- to high-income households, and older adults in the western region. Conclusion Our findings provide empirical evidence that developing the smart health and elderly care can enhance older adults’ subjective well-being. Consequently, the effective utilization of digital tools could be a focus of policymakers aiming to achieve healthy aging objectives.