Department of Nursing, The First Affiliated Hospital of Shandong First Medical University & Shandong Provincial Qianfoshan Hospital, Jinan, China.
School of Nursing, Shandong First Medical University & Shandong Academy of Medical Sciences, Taian, China.
Front Public Health. 2023 Mar 23;11:1099260. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1099260. eCollection 2023.
Engaging in social activities can help older persons with their depressed symptoms. Few studies, however, have looked into the connection between social interactions and depressed symptoms in Chinese older persons. The aim of this study was to investigate differences in older Chinese individuals' social activity involvement and depressive symptoms across urban and rural settings.
A cross-sectional investigation using information from the 2018 China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS), which was limited to older individuals aged 60 and over. Generalized linear models were constructed to assess the effects of participants' characteristics and specific social activities on CES-D scores. The association between specific social activities and depressed symptoms was investigated using multivariate logistic regression analysis.
In this study, it was discovered that older individuals had a prevalence of depressed symptoms of 36.2%, with rural older adults having a greater prevalence of depressive symptoms (39.7%) than urban older adults (30.9%). Our results showed that for urban respondents, providing help to others (not regularly. = 0.753, 95% : 0.579-0.980, = 0.035), going to a sport (not regularly. = 0.685, 95% : 0.508-0.924, = 0.013), and using the Internet (not regular. = 0.613, 95% : 0.477-0.789, < 0.001; almost weekly. = 0.196, 95% : 0.060-0.645, = 0.007) were all significantly and negatively associated with depressive symptoms, while for rural respondents, interacting with friends (not regularly. = 1.205, 95% : 1.028-01.412, = 0.021) and using the Internet (not regularly. = 0.441, 95% : 0.278-0.698, < 0.001) were significantly and negatively associated with depressive symptoms.
According to our research, there is a cross-sectional relationship between participating in a specific social activity and depressed symptoms in Chinese older adults, and this relationship varies across urban and rural older adults. This suggests that taking part in specific social activities may be crucial for reducing depression symptoms in older persons, developing more focused interventions that might support healthy aging, and offering a guide for policymakers and activists working to improve the mental health of seniors.
参与社交活动有助于老年人缓解抑郁症状。然而，很少有研究关注中国老年人的社交互动与抑郁症状之间的关系。本研究旨在调查城乡老年人社会活动参与度和抑郁症状的差异。
本研究采用 2018 年中国健康与退休纵向研究（CHARLS）的数据进行横断面调查，仅纳入 60 岁及以上的老年人。采用广义线性模型评估参与者特征和特定社会活动对 CES-D 评分的影响。采用多变量逻辑回归分析特定社会活动与抑郁症状之间的关联。
本研究发现，老年人抑郁症状的患病率为 36.2%，农村老年人（39.7%）的抑郁症状患病率高于城市老年人（30.9%）。结果显示，对于城市受访者，帮助他人（不规律. = 0.753，95%：0.579-0.980， = 0.035）、参加运动（不规律. = 0.685，95%：0.508-0.924， = 0.013）和使用互联网（不规律. = 0.613，95%：0.477-0.789， < 0.001；几乎每周. = 0.196，95%：0.060-0.645， = 0.007）与抑郁症状显著负相关，而对于农村受访者，与朋友互动（不规律. = 1.205，95%：1.028-01.412， = 0.021）和使用互联网（不规律. = 0.441，95%：0.278-0.698， < 0.001）与抑郁症状显著负相关。
根据我们的研究，中国老年人参与特定社会活动与抑郁症状之间存在横断面关系，且这种关系在城乡老年人中存在差异。这表明，参与特定的社会活动可能对降低老年人的抑郁症状至关重要，为制定更有针对性的干预措施以支持健康老龄化提供指导，并为政策制定者和致力于改善老年人心理健康的活动人士提供指导。
