Tsai Alan C, Chi Shu-Huang, Wang Jiun-Yi
Department of Healthcare Administration, Asia University, Taichung, Taiwan; Department of Health Services Management, School of Public Health, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan.
Geriatr Gerontol Int. 2015 May;15(5):535-43. doi: 10.1111/ggi.12307. Epub 2014 May 23.
We determined the association of perceived stress with depressive symptoms in older Taiwanese.
We analyzed the 2007 dataset of the Taiwan Longitudinal Survey on Aging, a population-based survey of 4534 persons aged ≥54 years. Perceived stress was based on respondents' reports of whether each of the five situations (own health, financial status, job, getting along with family members and family members' problems) "makes you feel stressed or anxious". Participants were rated with the 10-item Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale (score 0-30; ≥10 as having depressive symptoms). Multivariate logistic regression analysis was carried out to determine the association of each perceived stress situation with depressive symptoms in persons aged 54-64 years (middle-aged), 65-74 years (young-old) and ≥75 years (old-old).
Over one-third of respondents were stressed over their own health. The middle-aged respondents who were stressed were 2.0-10.9-fold as likely to have depressive symptoms, the young-old were 3.1-8.1-fold as likely and the old-old were 4.3-12.6-fold as likely compared with the non-stressed respondents (all P < 0.001). Financial stress and its association with depressive symptoms deceased with increasing age. Nearly half of the Taiwanese older adults had concerns over family members' problems and the concern was associated with depressive symptoms in the younger age groups. Relationship strain with family members existed in <10% of older Taiwanese, but the association with depressive symptoms was strong. Job-related stress was not associated with depressive symptoms.
Perceived stress and its association with depressive symptoms vary according to stress situations and age. The present findings should be useful for developing appropriate strategies to reduce the risk of depression in older adults.
我们确定了台湾老年人感知到的压力与抑郁症状之间的关联。
我们分析了2007年台湾老年人纵向调查数据集，该数据集是对4534名年龄≥54岁人群进行的基于人群的调查。感知到的压力基于受访者对五种情况（自身健康、财务状况、工作、与家庭成员相处以及家庭成员的问题）中每种情况是否“让您感到压力或焦虑”的报告。参与者使用10项流行病学研究中心抑郁量表进行评分（得分0 - 30；≥10分为有抑郁症状）。进行多变量逻辑回归分析以确定每种感知到的压力情况与54 - 64岁（中年）、6岁5 - 74岁（年轻老年人）和≥75岁（高龄老年人）人群抑郁症状之间的关联。
超过三分之一的受访者对自身健康感到压力。与无压力的受访者相比，感到压力的中年受访者出现抑郁症状的可能性是其2.0 - 10.9倍，年轻老年人是3.1 - 8.1倍，高龄老年人是4.3 - 12.6倍（所有P < 0.001）。财务压力及其与抑郁症状的关联随着年龄增长而降低。近一半的台湾老年人担心家庭成员的问题，这种担心与较年轻年龄组的抑郁症状相关。台湾老年人中不到10%存在与家庭成员的关系紧张情况，但与抑郁症状的关联很强。与工作相关的压力与抑郁症状无关。
感知到的压力及其与抑郁症状的关联因压力情况和年龄而异。本研究结果对于制定适当策略以降低老年人患抑郁症的风险应具有指导作用。
