AUTHOR=Zhou Pengfei , Wang Shuai , Yan Ya , Lu Qiang , Pei Jiaxing , Guo Wang , Yang Xiaoguang , Li Yunming 

TITLE=Association between chronic diseases and depression in the middle-aged and older adult Chinese population—a seven-year follow-up study based on CHARLS

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Public Health

VOLUME=11

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/public-health/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1176669

DOI=10.3389/fpubh.2023.1176669

ISSN=2296-2565

ABSTRACT=<sec id="sec1"><title>Background</title><p>With the aging of the Chinese population, the prevalence of depression and chronic diseases is continually growing among middle-aged and older adult people. This study aimed to investigate the association between chronic diseases and depression in this population.</p></sec><sec id="sec2"><title>Methods</title><p>Data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) 2011–2018 longitudinal survey, a 7-years follow-up of 7,163 participants over 45 years old, with no depression at baseline (2011). The chronic disease status in our study was based on the self-report of the participants, and depression was defined by the 10-item Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D-10). The relationship between baseline chronic disease and depression was assessed by the Kaplan–Meier method and Cox proportional hazards regression models.</p></sec><sec id="sec3"><title>Results</title><p>After 7-years follow-up, 41.2% (2,951/7163, 95% <italic>CI</italic>:40.1, 42.3%) of the participants reported depression. The analysis showed that participants with chronic diseases at baseline had a higher risk of depression and that such risk increased significantly with the number of chronic diseases suffered (1 chronic disease: <italic>HR</italic> = 1.197; 2 chronic diseases: <italic>HR</italic> = 1.310; 3 and more chronic diseases: <italic>HR</italic> = 1.397). Diabetes or high blood sugar (<italic>HR</italic> = 1.185), kidney disease (<italic>HR</italic> = 1.252), stomach or other digestive diseases (<italic>HR</italic> = 1.128), and arthritis or rheumatism (<italic>HR</italic> = 1.221) all significantly increased the risk of depression in middle-aged and older adult Chinese.</p></sec><sec id="sec4"><title>Conclusion</title><p>The present study found that suffering from different degrees of chronic diseases increased the risk of depression in middle-aged and older adult people, and these findings may benefit preventing depression and improving the quality of mental health in this group.</p></sec>