[Purpose/significance] While the digitisation of public cultural services may facilitate users' access to cul⁃tural resources, it also raises the threshold of access to public cultural services, placing a burden on elderly users. This paper is proposed to eliminate the digital burden of elderly users under the digitalisation of public cultural services, to protect the digital cultural rights and interests of elderly users, and to promote the development of equalisation of public cultural services. [Method/process] The article mainly explores the formation mechanism of digital burden of elderly users in the context of digitisation of public cultural services, and puts forward the influence hypothesis of digital bur⁃den of elderly users based on cognitive load theory. Taking the National Cultural Cloud as an example, the question⁃naire survey method is used to collect data, the hypothesised paths are tested by structural equation modelling, and the
model stability test is conducted using artificial neural network. [Result/conclusion] The results show that information overload, task complexity and system design overload significantly exacerbate the digital burden of elderly users, while prior experience can effectively alleviate users' digital burden. Meanwhile, the ranking of the influence of each variable on digital burden is task complexity>system design overload>prior experience>information overload.