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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Aging Psychiatry
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1576964
This article is part of the Research TopicHealthy ageing, social psychiatry of older adults and family caregiversView all 10 articles
Network of Anxiety and Depression Symptoms in Older Chinese Adults Living Alone: A Cross-Sectional Study
Provisionally accepted- 1Department of Psychology, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai, Shanghai Municipality, China
- 2School of Education, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai, Shanghai China ,200234, shanghai, China
- 3Teacher Education College, Hunan City University, Yiyang, Hunan China，413000, yiyang, China
- 4Department of Psychology, Second Sanatorium of Air Force Healthycare Center for Special Services Hangzhou, Hangzhou China 310007, hangzhou, China
- 5Xi'an Changli Oil & Gas Engineering & Technical Services Co. Xian, Shaixi China，714000, xian, China
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Background: With the rapid aging of China's population, the proportion of older adults living alone has increased significantly, bringing their mental health concerns into sharp focus. This study aims to explore the network structure of anxiety and depressive symptoms among older Chinese adults who live alone, thereby identifying central and bridging symptoms to provide scientific evidence for potential intervention targets in prevention and treatment.Methods: A total of 1,952 older Chinese adults, aged 65 and older, living alone, were selected from the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey (CLHLS) conducted in 2017-2018. We assessed anxiety and depressive symptoms using Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7) and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D). We identified central and bridge symptoms via expected influences (EI) and bridge expected influences (BEI); network stability was evaluated using bootstrap methods.The network structure uncovered four crucial connections between anxiety and depressive symptoms. GAD4 "Trouble relaxing", GAD2 "Uncontrollable worry", and CESD3 "Feeling blue/depressed" exhibited the highest EI values within the network. Meanwhile, GAD1 "Nervousness or anxiety" and CESD10 "Sleep disturbances" showed the highest BEI values within their respective communities.This exploratory study is the first to examine the reciprocal relationship between depressive and anxiety symptoms in older Chinese adults living alone. Targeting these central and bridging symptoms may effectively prevent comorbidity and facilitate targeted interventions for those at risk or currently experiencing these symptoms.
Keywords: Anxiety, Depression, Living alone, Network analysis, older adults
Received: 14 Feb 2025; Accepted: 10 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 He, Chen, Zhao, Xu, Fang, Hong, Xie, Yan and Zhou. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Yang He, Department of Psychology, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai, Shanghai Municipality, China
Xiaolu Zhou, School of Education, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai, Shanghai China ,200234, shanghai, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.