scholarly journals Gender differences in the longitudinal association between husbands' and wives' depressive symptoms among Korean older adults: the moderating effects of the spousal relationship

Author(s):  
Jiwon Baek ◽  
Yoosik Youm ◽  
Hyeon Chang Kim
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. e001789
Author(s):  
Teresa Alvarez-Cisneros ◽  
Paloma Roa-Rojas ◽  
Carmen Garcia-Peña

IntroductionSeveral studies have argued a causal relationship between diabetes and depression, while others have highlighted that their association is a result of common risk factors. Because Mexico is a country with a high prevalence of diabetes, and diabetes and depression are a frequent comorbidity, we chose this country to investigate the longitudinal relationship of these two conditions, focusing on the influence of demographic, health, and socioeconomic factors which could act as common risk factors for both conditions.Research design and methodsUsing the harmonized Mexican Health and Aging Study, a nationally representative sample of adults older than 50 with a response rate of 93%, we analyzed the longitudinal relationship of diabetes and depressive symptoms using ‘between-within’ random-effects models, focusing on the effect of demographic, socioeconomic and health factors.ResultsWhile older adults with diabetes reported a higher prevalence of depressive symptoms in the four waves of the study, there was no causal longitudinal association between them once controlling for demographic, socioeconomic and health factors (between-effect OR=0.88, 95% CI 0.77 to 1.01; within-effect OR=0.87, 95% CI 0.69 to 1.11).ConclusionsThere is no causal longitudinal association between diabetes and depression; the higher prevalence of depression among older adults with diabetes seems a result of socioeconomic and health factors that are not exclusive to respondents with diabetes but are more frequent in this group. Our results highlight the importance of prevention and control of chronic conditions as well as the role of socioeconomic inequalities in mental health.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuekang Li ◽  
Yi Wang ◽  
Nancy Morrow-Howell

Abstract Background and Objectives The associations between physical frailty and depressive symptoms among older individuals were established in the existing literature. Taking the person–environment perspective, we argue that neighborhood environment could either buffer the stress derived from being physically vulnerable or worsen it by adding another layer of stressors in the environmental context when physical health declined. The objectives of this study were to explore to what extent the neighborhood-level characteristics moderate the relationship between physical frailty and depressive symptoms. Research Design and Methods Using the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study 2011 wave, 6,245 individuals aged 60 years and older were included for analyses. Multilevel mixed-effects models were fitted to examine the moderating effects of urbanicity and neighborhood-level socioeconomic status (SES) on the relationship between frailty and depressive symptoms among older adults, controlling for individual-level characteristics. Results Results showed a stronger relationship between deterioration in physical health and depressive symptoms in rural neighborhoods and neighborhoods with lower SES, after controlling for individual-level SES. Also, the moderating effects of the neighborhood-level socioeconomic factors remained after controlling for urbanicity, indicating that neighborhood SES works beyond the rural–urban contexts. Discussion and Implications Findings from this study demonstrate the important roles of neighborhood socioeconomic characteristics in reshaping, and the need to redefine, China’s rural–urban dichotomy. The findings also identified neighborhoods with low SES as potential targets for policy and practice to reduce the stress associated with health decline.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariana Teles ◽  
Dingjing Shi

The association between subjective memory complaints (SMCs) and objective memory performance (OMP) has been consistently reported as small, but how the dynamics of this association changes as a function of depressive symptoms and the individual's cognitive functioning level remains unclear. Method: using the bivariate dual change score approach, the present study investigated the directionality of the SMC-OMP association in a sample of healthy older adults (N = 2,057) from the Virginia Cognitive Aging Project. The sample was assessed throughout ten years, five-time points, and the impact of education, depressive symptoms, and low-memory functioning were tested. Three dimensions of SMC were assessed: Frequency of Forgetting, Seriousness of Forgetting, and Retrospective Memory. Results: For Frequency of Forgetting and Seriousness of Forgetting, the unidirectional models in which both subjective dimensions predicted subsequent changes in OMP showed the best fit to the data. For Retrospective Memory, the opposite direction was supported, with OMP leading the association. However, significant coupling effects were not found between these pairs of constructs. After including depressive symptoms as a covariate, Frequency of Forgetting significantly predicted subsequent changes in OMP (γ= -1.226, SE = 0.543). A similar result was found for the low-memory functioning group after the inclusion of depression, with the frequency of memory complaints predicting subsequent memory decline (γ = -1.026, SE = 0.112, p < 0.05). Our results do not support a predictive value of SMC for OMP without accounting for the influence of depressive symptoms and low-memory functioning in this longitudinal association.


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