Urbanization and depressive symptoms among middle-aged and older adults in China

Chenlu Hong; Xiaoxiao Xiong; Jun Li; Xin Ning; Dawei Qi; Yingkai Yang; Yating Liu; Yanan Luo

doi:10.3389/fpubh.2022.1086248

Urbanization and depressive symptoms among middle-aged and older adults in China

Front Public Health. 2022 Dec 23:10:1086248. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.1086248. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Chenlu Hong¹, Xiaoxiao Xiong², Jun Li³, Xin Ning⁴, Dawei Qi⁵, Yingkai Yang³, Yating Liu³, Yanan Luo^{1

6}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Global Health, School of Public Health, Peking University, Beijing, China.
² National Academy of Innovation Strategy, Beijing, China.
³ School of Nursing, Peking University, Beijing, China.
⁴ School of Nursing, Kunming Medical University, Kunming, Yunnan, China.
⁵ Central Health Center of Qingyundian Town, Beijing, China.
⁶ Institute for Global Health and Development, Peking University, Beijing, China.

Abstract

Aims: Urbanization plays an important role in individuals' health. However, it is difficult to isolate healthy migrant effect between urbanization and health. This study examined the effects of urbanization on depressive symptoms and its possible pathways among Chinese middle-aged and older adults independent of the influence of health-selective migration.

Methods: Using the baseline survey of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study, this study compared the depressive symptoms among three groups (urbanized rural residents, rural non-migrants and urban non-migrants). The 10-item Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CESD-10) short form was used to measure depressive symptoms. Logistic regression models and Structural Equation Model (SEM) were applied to examine the association between urbanization and depressive symptoms and the corresponding potential mechanisms.

Results: Our final sample contained 11,156 respondents with an average age of 58.91 (SD = 9.48), with 5,142 males (46.09%) and 6,014 females (53.91%). Compared with urbanized rural residents, rural residents were more likely to have depressive symptoms (OR = 1.19, 95% CI = 1.07, 1.32), and urban residents were associated with a decreased risk of depressive symptoms (OR = 0.81, 95% CI: 0.70, 0.94). A large proportion of the association between urbanization and depressive symptoms were mainly mediated by social participation, income and living conditions.

Conclusions: Planned urbanization had an independent impact on decreased depressive symptoms. Improvements in social participation, income and living conditions are the main drivers behind this relationship. Additionally, urbanization compensates for the negative impact of depressive symptoms from disadvantaged early life conditions, but it cannot eliminate the gap between urbanized rural people and urban non-migrants.

Keywords: depressive symptoms; mechanism; middle-aged and older adults; the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study; urbanization.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Aged
China / epidemiology
Depression* / epidemiology
Female
Health Status
Humans
Longitudinal Studies
Male
Middle Aged
Urbanization*