School of Sociology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, PR China.
Department of Sociology, University of Akron, Akron, USA.
J Affect Disord. 2020 Sep 1;274:85-92. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2020.05.052. Epub 2020 May 21.
The specific impacts of attitudes toward aging on depressive symptoms have not been widely reported in previous studies in China.
The aim is to examine the associations between attitudes toward aging, perceived social support, and depressive symptoms among older adults stratified by rural and urban dwelling.
This study used a cross-sectional data including 7209 participants, among which 64.6% were urban adults and 35.4% were rural adults. Several multiple liner regression models were used to analysis the data. Three social support types were analyzed as moderators of the relationship between the attitudes toward aging and depressive symptoms.
Positive attitudes toward aging (β=-0.139, P<0.001), negative attitudes toward aging (β=0.284, P<0.001) were significantly associated with lower depressive symptoms among older Chinese adults. Support from family (β=-0.087, P<0.001), friends (β=-0.047, P<0.01) and the government (β=-0.035, P<0.01) were all significantly associated with urban older adults' levels of depressive symptoms. Only family support (β=-0.109, P<0.001) was associated with lower depressive symptoms among rural older adults'. In addition, family support buffered the effect of negative attitudes toward aging on depressive symptoms for all the older adults, while the moderation effects of support from friends and government only worked for urban elderly.
A cross-sectional design is limited to establish causal associations.
Addressing depression among older adults should focus on improving attitudes toward aging and expanding the availability of social support. Moreover, deeper reforms are needed to address inequalities between urban and rural areas in China.
在中国以往的研究中，尚未广泛报道对衰老的态度对抑郁症状的具体影响。
旨在检验城乡老年人中，对衰老的态度、感知社会支持与抑郁症状之间的关系。
本研究使用了横断面数据，共纳入 7209 名参与者，其中 64.6%为城市成年人，35.4%为农村成年人。使用多个线性回归模型分析数据。分析了三种社会支持类型作为对衰老的态度与抑郁症状之间关系的调节因素。
积极的衰老态度（β=-0.139，P<0.001）、消极的衰老态度（β=0.284，P<0.001）与中国老年人的抑郁症状呈显著负相关。家庭支持（β=-0.087，P<0.001）、朋友支持（β=-0.047，P<0.01）和政府支持（β=-0.035，P<0.01）均与城市老年人的抑郁症状呈显著负相关。只有家庭支持（β=-0.109，P<0.001）与农村老年人的抑郁症状呈显著负相关。此外，家庭支持缓冲了对衰老的消极态度对所有老年人抑郁症状的影响，而来自朋友和政府的支持的调节作用仅对城市老年人有效。
横断面设计限制了建立因果关系。
解决老年人的抑郁问题应注重改善对衰老的态度和扩大社会支持的可及性。此外，还需要进行更深入的改革，以解决中国城乡之间的不平等问题。
