Association between social health status and depressive symptoms among community-dwelling elderly adults in Zhejiang Province, China.

Hong-lei Dai; Zhe-bin YU; Liu-qing You; Min-hua Fan; Hong-wei Zhu; Dan-jie Jiang; Meng-yin WU; Shu-juan Lin; Xiao-cong Zhang; Kun Chen

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Association between social health status and depressive symptoms among community-dwelling elderly adults in Zhejiang Province, China.

Author: Hong-Lei DAI ¹ ; Zhe-Bin YU ² ; Liu-Qing YOU ² ; Min-Hua FAN ³ ; Hong-Wei ZHU ³ ; Dan-Jie JIANG ² ; Meng-Yin WU ² ; Shu-Juan LIN ² ; Xiao-Cong ZHANG ² ; Kun CHEN ²
Author Information

1. Department of Family Medicine, Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310016, China.
2. Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, School of Public Health, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China.
3. Community Health Service Center of Kaixuan, Hangzhou 310020, China.
Publication Type:Journal Article
Keywords: Depressive symptom; Social health; Elderly adult
MeSH: Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Cross-Sectional Studies; Depression/epidemiology*; Female; Health Status; Humans; Independent Living; Logistic Models; Male; Middle Aged
From: Journal of Zhejiang University. Science. B 2019;20(11):910-919
CountryChina
Language:English
Abstract: OBJECTIVE:Mental disorders of the elderly population in China deserve attention. Social health is significantly associated with depression. This study aimed to evaluate the rate of depressive symptoms and to test the relationships between social health and depressive symptoms among a large sample of community-dwelling elderly adults.
METHODS:We conducted a cross-sectional study among community-dwelling adults aged 60 years or above in Zhejiang Province, China. Face-to-face interviews were used to complete a structured questionnaire for all participants. We used the Social Health Scale for the Elderly (SHSE) to evaluate social health status and used the short form of the Geriatric Depression Scale to evaluate depressive symptoms. Multivariate logistic regression was used to evaluate the association between social health status and depressive symptoms.
RESULTS:Of the total of 3757 participants included, 1887 (50.23%) were female, and the mean±standard deviation (SD) age was (70.0±8.3) years. The rate of depressive symptoms was 25.92%. The social health score was higher in non-depressed participants than in depressed participants (raw score 50.7 vs. 48.3, P<0.001). Participants with "moderate" or "good" social health had a significantly lower risk of depressive symptoms than those with "poor" social health (odds ratio (OR)=0.55, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.46-0.66 for moderate social health; OR=0.45, 95% CI: 0.35-0.60 for good social health). The association between social health and depressive symptoms was consistent across several subgroups.
CONCLUSIONS:Social health is significantly inversely associated with depressive symptoms. The SHSE may serve as an efficient screener to identify those elderly adults with social health deficits, but systematic assessment to guide intervention merits further investigation.