In recent years, smartphone addiction among the elderly has become a social problem. However, smartphone addiction among the elderly has been rarely studied, and its mechanism remains unclear. To address this gap, this study aims to analyze the correlation between app use in four categories (social, information, entertainment, and shopping) and smartphone addiction among the elderly and examined the moderating effect of loneliness. A questionnaire survey was conducted on 492 elderly aged above 60 and above in China. The key findings are: (1) There is a significant positive correlation between information, entertainment and shopping app use and smartphone addiction among the elderly; (2) Loneliness significantly moderates the relationship between information app use and shopping app use and smartphone addiction in the elderly; When loneliness level is high, information app use and shopping app use can exacerbate smartphone addiction in the elderly. Particularly, these findings contribute to a deeper understanding of the correlation between the use of different types of app use and smartphone addiction in elderly, especially for those who experience high levels of loneliness, in order to develop guidelines or intervention measures to promote healthy smartphone use among addicted older smartphone users.

Smartphone addiction;Mobile application use;The elderly;Loneliness;Moderating effect

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DOI： https://doi.org/10.62639/sspjiss08.20250201

Published： 2025