From online to offline: the impact of digital communication on activity participation among older adults

Objectives At the nexus of rapid digitization and demographic aging, leveraging the social potential of digital technologies to achieve active aging goals has emerged as a key concern. Drawing on the digital empowerment perspective, this research empirically examined the association between digital communication and older adults’ offline activity participation, while further investigating the mediating roles of three types of social capital and the moderating role of social self-efficacy. Methods We conducted a cross-sectional survey administered offline and collected 1,595 valid responses (mean age = 66.01 years). The survey assessed older adults’ digital communication use, frequency of offline activity participation, three types of social capital, social self-efficacy, and key demographic characteristics. SPSS along with Hayes Process Models 4 and 7 was employed to test the hypotheses. Results (1) Digital communication was significantly and positively associated with older adults’ offline activity participation. (2) Bonding, bridging, and maintained social capital each mediated the association between digital communication and offline activity participation. (3) Social self-efficacy negatively moderated the associations between digital communication and three types of social capital, such that the positive association was stronger among older adults with lower social self-efficacy. Conclusion For older adults, digital communication extends beyond serving merely as an informational or interactive tool. Through its associations with multidimensional social capital, it is closely intertwined with offline participation, lending empirical support to the network enhancement effect in the context of population aging. The more pronounced compensatory pattern observed among older adults with lower self-efficacy further suggests that digital communication may be particularly relevant to the social integration of psychologically vulnerable groups. Accordingly, we recommend that age-friendly digital initiatives prioritize older adults’ perceived digital benefits, strengthen the pathways linking online interaction to offline participation, and provide tailored technological support for older adults with different personality traits that aligns with their sustained motivation for social engagement.