Spatiotemporal effect of internet use on life expectancy: cross-country insight from a geographically and temporally weighted analysis

Internet use has become an important factor affecting health. The spatio-temporal heterogeneity of the influence of internet utilization on life expectancy has not been thoroughly investigated on a global scale. The spatial clustering patterns that influence of internet usage on residents’ health levels have not yet been detected. The Geographically and Temporally Weighted Regression (GTWR) model is used to examine the spatio-temporal variation of the associations between internet use and life expectancy in 182 countries from 1990 to 2020. K-mean is employed to reveal the spatial clustering patterns exhibited by GTWR fitting coefficients. The results demonstrate that internet use significantly and positively impacts life expectancy globally based on GTWR fitting coefficients. Meanwhile, the influence of internet use on life expectancy demonstrates spatio-temporal heterogeneity and non-stationarity. Furthermore, six distinctive spatial clusters are revealed utilizing the GTWR fitting coefficients as a foundation. Spatial cluster 1 is the region where internet use has the least health-promoting effect, whereas spatial cluster 6 is the region where internet use has the greatest health-promoting effect. Our findings offer novel insights into the spatio-temporal heterogeneity relationship and non-stationarity between internet use and life expectancy while providing empirical evidence to support the implementation of region-specific internet policies aimed at enhancing health outcomes.