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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Public Mental Health
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1450358

The association between hobby engagement and depressive symptoms among Chinese middle-aged and older adults: evidence from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study

Provisionally accepted
Qiong Lu Qiong Lu 1*Peijing Hu Peijing Hu 2*Cheng Lian Cheng Lian 3*Xinglin Chen Xinglin Chen 4
  • 1 Chinese National Academy of Arts, Beijing, China
  • 2 Second Affiliated Hospital, Xi'an Medical University, Xi'an, China
  • 3 Xi’an No.3 Hospital, the Affiliated Hospital of Northwest University, Xi’an, China
  • 4 China Folk Art Research Institute, College of Xiamen Arts and Crafts, Fuzhou University, Xiamen, China

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

    BACKGROUND: It has been demonstrated that receptive cultural engagement, such as visits to theatres and museums, can reduce depression in older adults. However, the association between hobby engagement and lower rates of depressive symptoms (DS) remains unclear. The objective of this study was to investigate the potential relationship between hobby engagement and depressive symptoms.The data for this prospective cross-sectional study were collected from participants in the China Longitudinal Study of Health and Retirement (CHARLS) wave 2020. To assess DS, a score of 10 or more on the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale was used to indicate depression. Hobby engagement was gauged by trained staff through the administration of a battery of standardised questions. Logistic regression and inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW) using the propensity score analyses were employed to investigate the relationship between hobby engagement and DS. RESULTS: A total of 16,057 participants were included, with a mean age of 62.4±9.2 years. Of these, 7699 were male and 8358 were female. The proportion of individuals exhibiting depressive symptoms was 31.57% (1286 out of 4073) among those with hobby engagement, while it was 39.67% (4754 out of 11984) among those without hobby engagement. After adjusting for covariates, the odds ratio was 0.89 (95% CI: 0.82-0.97, P = 0.0109). Propensity-score analyses also supported these findings, with the odds ratio being 0.91 (95% CI: 0.84-0.99, P = 0.0204). The finding was consistent with multiple sensitivity analyses. CONCLUSIONS: Our study found hobby engagement was associated with a reduced risk of depressive symptoms in Chinese middle-aged and older adults. Our findings need to be confirmed in future studies.

    Keywords: hobby, Depression, Logistic regression, longitudinal study, adults

    Received: 17 Jun 2024; Accepted: 03 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Lu, Hu, Lian and Chen. 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:
    Qiong Lu, Chinese National Academy of Arts, Beijing, China
    Peijing Hu, Second Affiliated Hospital, Xi'an Medical University, Xi'an, China
    Cheng Lian, Xi’an No.3 Hospital, the Affiliated Hospital of Northwest University, Xi’an, 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.