Changing social composition of internet-use frequency categories and leisure exercise in China: a repeated cross-sectional study
- 1School of Physical Education, Guizhou Normal University
- 2Graduate School of Human-Environment Studies, Kyushu University
Abstract
Background: As frequent internet use becomes widespread, the social population represented by nonfrequent internet users may change. We examined who these users were, how their composition differed across survey years, and whether their leisure-exercise differences from frequent internet users were similar in magnitude across years.
Methods: Nine Chinese General Social Survey cross-sections from 2010–2023 provided 90,457 records for descriptive analyses of adults aged 18 years or older and 71,218 records for association analyses at ages 30–74. Survey-weighted models standardized exercise probabilities to each wave's covariate distribution. The outcome was leisure exercise daily or several times per week. Three- and five-category comparisons examined the binary grouping alongside composition and observed support.
Results: Frequent internet users accounted for 19.15% of the adult descriptive sample in 2010 and 71.73% in 2023. Among nonfrequent internet users, never users comprised 82.82% in 2010 and 48.88% in 2023. Nonfrequent users' mean ages were 49.35 and 62.39 years, and mean personal-income percentiles were 45.75 and 37.62, respectively. Frequent-minus-nonfrequent exercise differences ranged from 2.12 to 10.09 percentage points; all nine point estimates were positive, with 95% intervals including zero in 2010 and 2023. Frequent-minus-never differences ranged from 4.29 to 13.65 points, versus −0.19 to 7.07 points for frequent-minus-low-frequency use. In the 2023 association sample aged 30–74, respondents aged 30–35 accounted for 14.43% of the weighted population, but none were never internet users; standardized comparisons involving never use therefore required age extrapolation.
Conclusion: The same nonfrequent internet-use label encompassed different behavioral mixtures and social profiles across surveys. Interpreting leisure-exercise associations across years requires attention to the people represented by the frequency groups, the standardization population and observed support.
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BibTeX
@article{zhu2026changing,
title = {{Changing social composition of internet-use frequency categories and leisure exercise in China: a repeated cross-sectional study}},
author = {Wenfeng Zhu and Yi Lin and Banghui Hong and Jinfeng Liu},
journal = {Frontiers in Public Health},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.3389/fpubh.2026.1965960},
url = {https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2026.1965960/full},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Changing social composition of internet-use frequency categories and leisure exercise in China: a repeated cross-sectional study
AU - Wenfeng Zhu
AU - Yi Lin
AU - Banghui Hong
AU - Jinfeng Liu
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/22
JO - Frontiers in Public Health
DO - 10.3389/fpubh.2026.1965960
UR - https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2026.1965960/full
AB - Background: As frequent internet use becomes widespread, the social population represented by nonfrequent internet users may change. We examined who these users were, how their composition differed across survey years, and whether their leisure-exercise differences from frequent internet users were similar in magnitude across years. Methods: Nine Chinese General Social Survey cross-sections from 2010–2023 provided 90,457 records for descriptive analyses of adults aged 18 years or older and 71,218 records for association analyses at ages 30–74. Survey-weighted models standardized exercise probabilities to each wave's covariate distribution. The outcome was leisure exercise daily or several times per week. Three- and five-category comparisons examined the binary grouping alongside composition and observed support. Results: Frequent internet users accounted for 19.15% of the adult descriptive sample in 2010 and 71.73% in 2023. Among nonfrequent internet users, never users comprised 82.82% in 2010 and 48.88% in 2023. Nonfrequent users' mean ages were 49.35 and 62.39 years, and mean personal-income percentiles were 45.75 and 37.62, respectively. Frequent-minus-nonfrequent exercise differences ranged from 2.12 to 10.09 percentage points; all nine point estimates were positive, with 95% intervals including zero in 2010 and 2023. Frequent-minus-never differences ranged from 4.29 to 13.65 points, versus −0.19 to 7.07 points for frequent-minus-low-frequency use. In the 2023 association sample aged 30–74, respondents aged 30–35 accounted for 14.43% of the weighted population, but none were never internet users; standardized comparisons involving never use therefore required age extrapolation. Conclusion: The same nonfrequent internet-use label encompassed different behavioral mixtures and social profiles across surveys. Interpreting leisure-exercise associations across years requires attention to the people represented by the frequency groups, the standardization population and observed support.
SN - 2296-2565
ER -