Bridging the urban-rural divide: digital literacy as a catalyst for enhancing physical exercise participation in...

Rapid societal digitalization is transforming the determinants of health behaviors worldwide. Digital literacy-defined as the ability to effectively access, evaluate, and utilize digital information-appears crucial in promoting physical activity and mitigating health disparities. However, empirical evidence on its influence within the context of China's pronounced urban-rural divide remains limited.

Utilizing data from the 2022 China Family Panel Studies (N = 18,336), this study applied logit, OLS, and IV-2SLS models to examine digital literacy's effect on exercise frequency and duration. Heterogeneity was assessed via subgroup analyses and interaction tests.

Elevated digital literacy demonstrated significant positive correlations with exercise frequency (p < 0.01) and duration (p < 0.01). Crucially, this relationship exhibited marked urban-rural heterogeneity, with substantially stronger effects observed in rural populations. Baseline regression analyses quantified these patterns: a one-unit increase in digital literacy corresponded to a 1.72-unit rise in weekly exercise frequency and a 26.19-min extension in per-session duration across the full sample (both p < 0.01). When stratified by residence, rural participants showed significantly greater responsiveness-digital literacy increments yielded increases of 2.05 frequency units and 29.34 min per session, versus 0.99 units and 19.23 min among urban counterparts. Formal interaction tests confirmed this divergence, revealing rural advantages of +1.76 frequency units (95% CI: 1.35-2.17; p < 0.01) and +10.88 min per session (95% CI: 4.61-17.16; p < 0.01). All findings persisted through instrumental variable and sensitivity analyses.

Digital literacy critically enables health-promoting behaviors, particularly for rural residents facing structural resource constraints. Enhancing digital competencies may narrow urban-rural gaps in health behaviors and advance health equity. Policymakers should prioritize rural digital infrastructure and digital skills training to fully harness digital empowerment for public health.