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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Aging and Public Health
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1393530
This article is part of the Research Topic Analyses on Health Status and Care Needs among Older Adults View all 7 articles

The Mediating Effect of Life Satisfaction Between Daily Living Abilities and Depressive symptoms in the Chinese Elderly：

Provisionally accepted
Mingsheng Liao Mingsheng Liao 1Xuesi Zhang Xuesi Zhang 2Zhiquan Xie Zhiquan Xie 3Limei Li Limei Li 3Liqin Zou Liqin Zou 3*
  • 1 Youth League committee, Zhaoqing Medical College, Zhaoqing City,Guangdong Province, China
  • 2 Zhaoqing First People's Hospital, Zhaoqing, Guangdong Province, China
  • 3 School of Public Health, Zhaoqing Medical College, Zhaoqing, Guangdong Province, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background: Depressive symptoms represent a significant public health challenge, impacting the mental well-being of older adults. Despite this, the understanding of how activities of daily living (ADL) abilities correlate with life satisfaction and depressive symptoms among older Chinese adults remains limited.Aims: This study aims to investigate the relationship between ADL and depressive symptoms in elderly Chinese individuals, with a specific focus on examining the mediating role of life satisfaction within this context.The study utilized data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) collected in 2020. A cohort of 8,343 individuals aged 60 years and above was included. The analysis was conducted using STATA 17.0 and SPSS 26.0, employing descriptive statistics, chi-square tests, Pearson correlations, and mediation analysis using the percentile Bootstrap method with 5,000 resamples to explore the interrelations among ADL, life satisfaction, and depressive symptoms.Results: ADL is positively correlated with life satisfaction (r=0.129, P<0.01) and negatively correlated with depressive symptoms (r=-0.313, P<0.01). Additionally, life satisfaction and depressive symptoms are negatively correlated with each other (r=-0.360, P<0.01). In the model of the mediating effect, ADL directly, significantly and negatively predicts depressive symptoms in the Chinese elderly (β=-0.193, t=-17.827, P<0.001). After incorporating life satisfaction into the regression equation, the direct predictive effect of ADL on depressive symptoms remains significant (β=-0.177, t=-17.099, P<0.001); furthermore, ADL has a significant positive predictive effect on life satisfaction (β=0.007, t=4.959, P<0.001) and life satisfaction significantly negatively predicts depressive symptoms (β=-2.235, t=-27.799, P<0.001). Furthermore, the direct effect of ADL on depressive symptoms (-0.177) and its mediating effect (-0.016) account for 91.71% and 8.29% of the total effect (-0.193), 3 respectively.ADL is inversely associated with the risk of depressive symptoms among elderly Chinese individuals, with life satisfaction serving as a significant mediator in this relationship. Interventions aimed at improving life satisfaction in elderly individuals with ADL impairments may effectively reduce or prevent the onset of depressive symptoms.

    Keywords: Elderly, Activities of Daily Living, Disability, life satisfaction, depressive symptoms, Mediating effect

    Received: 29 Feb 2024; Accepted: 26 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Liao, Zhang, Xie, Li and Zou. 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: Liqin Zou, School of Public Health, Zhaoqing Medical College, Zhaoqing, Guangdong Province, 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.