Twelve-Month Incidence of Depressive Symptoms in Suburb-Dwelling Chinese Older Adults: Role of Sarcopenia

Abstract

Objective: The objective of this study was to examine the incidence of new onset depressive symptoms and associated factors over a 1-year period in an older Chinese suburban population.

Design: Prospective cohort study.

Setting and participants: The sample comprised 691 Chinese community-dwelling participants (304 men; mean age 67.5 ± 5.7 years) without depressive symptoms at baseline, recruited from Chadian of Tianjin, China.

Measures: We had documented detailed information regarding sociodemographics, behavioral characteristics, and medical conditions. Sarcopenia was defined according to the Asian Working Group for Sarcopenia (AWGS) criteria. The outcome was new onset depressive symptoms at 1-year follow-up, defined as a score of ≥11 on the 30-item Geriatric Depression Scale.

Results: We found that 83 (12.0%) of the 691 participants without depressive symptoms at baseline had developed depressive symptoms. After multivariate adjustments, it was found that the incidence of new onset depressive symptoms was associated with sarcopenia, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and cardiovascular disease. People with a higher level of muscle mass and better sleep quality were significantly less likely to develop depressive symptoms than their counterparts.

Conclusions/implications: We found that the incidence of depressive symptoms increased with some chronic diseases, such as sarcopenia, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and cardiovascular disease. In addition, muscle mass was the most related protective factor among sarcopenia's 3 basic diagnosis components-muscle mass, muscle strength, and physical performance. Hence, maintaining enough muscle mass could be beneficial in the prevention of depressive symptoms for older adults.

Keywords: Depressive symptoms; elderly people; sarcopenia.