The relationship between use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and well-being is an increasingly debated public health issue. Currently, there is limited understanding of how the ethnic digital divide influences this association. Thus, this study assessed how ethnicity has historically moderated relations between ICT (mobile phone, computer, TV) uptake, and several well-being indicators; (a) long-term health (chronic illness), (b) cigarette smoking, and (c) self-perceptions of personal health. Archived data from a UK Office for National Statistics household survey 2007-2011 (97,697 participant records) was analysed, controlling for multiple socio-demographic confounders. Mobile phone dependence was associated with poorer health perceptions in Caucasian women, but more favourable appraisals in ethnic minority females (OR = 0.51). Furthermore, mobile phone uptake was more strongly related to increased behavioural risk (cigarette smoking) in Caucasian men compared with ethnic minority males (OR = 1.68). Ethnicity did not influence relations between ICT uptake and long-term health. Overall, ethnicity was implicated in relations between mobile phone use and well-being indicators: unfavourable associations occurred primarily in Caucasians
