How mobile payment reshapes self-reported health—empirical insights from China

Background: Health plays a critical role in individual well-being, economic productivity, and overall social development. Mobile payment continues to reshape financial behaviors and lifestyles, however, how mobile payment affects individual health and how these effects differ across various population groups are not fully understood. We aimed to examine the impact of mobile payment on individual health in China. Methods: Using the Chinese General Social Survey data for 16,751 samples in China in 2017 and 2018, this study explored the impact of mobile payment on self-reported health (SRH) in China, employing the extended ordered probit (EOP) model to address the potential selection bias. The results remain consistent after utilizing a recursive bivariate ordered probit (RBOP) method and a conditional mixed process (CMP) model for estimations. The disaggregated effects were derived from the EOP model. The Karlson-Holm-Breen (KHB) method was applied to conduct the mechanism analysis. Results: Generally, mobile payment has a statistically significant and positive impact on SRH. Nonetheless, this impact is heterogeneous among different age and gender groups, as well as between those with rural and urban hukou. Furthermore, mobile payment affects SRH by multiple channels including positive mechanisms (i.e. optimizing consumption structure and increasing social interaction) and negative mechanisms (i.e. causing excessive consumption and healthy risks by overuse). Conclusion: This study confirmed a positive effect of mobile payment on SRH and the impact is the strongest for the old, the female and those with rural hukou. These findings highlight the need for more targeted policy interventions to optimize the use of mobile payment, thereby enhancing its role in improving residents’ health outcomes and promoting public well-being.