The prevalence of anxiety and its key influencing factors among the elderly in China

Yixuan Liu; Yanling Xu; Xinyan Yang; Guomei Miao; Yinghui Wu; Shujuan Yang

doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1038049

The prevalence of anxiety and its key influencing factors among the elderly in China

Front Psychiatry. 2023 Feb 2:14:1038049. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1038049. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Yixuan Liu¹, Yanling Xu¹, Xinyan Yang¹, Guomei Miao¹, Yinghui Wu¹, Shujuan Yang¹

Affiliation

¹ Department of Social Medicine and Health Management, School of Public Health, Jilin University, Changchun, China.

Abstract

Introduction: With the rapid aging population, the mental health of older adults is paid more and more attention. Anxiety is a common mental health illness in older adults. Therefore, the study aimed to explore the current situation of anxiety and its factors among the elderly in China.

Methods: Based on the data from 2018 Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey (CLHLS), a total of 10,982 respondents aged 60 and above were selected. Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7) scale was used to assess the anxiety. Univariate and multivariate analysis were used to analyze the influencing factors of anxiety. Random forest was established to rank the importance of each influencing factors.

Results: The results showed that the prevalence of anxiety among the elderly was 11.24%. Anxiety was mainly associated with 14 factors from five aspects: sociodemographic characteristics, health status, psychological state, social trust and social participation, among which loneliness related to psychological status was the most important factor.

Discussion: The revelation of this study is that the present situation of anxiety among the elderly cannot be ignored, and it is necessary to take measures to prevent and control it from many aspects.

Keywords: aging; anxiety; influencing factors; mental health; random forest.