Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Feb 14;18(4):1853.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph18041853.

Precautionary Behavior and Depression in Older Adults during the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Online Cross-Sectional Study in Hubei, China

Wei Liang  1   2 , Yanping Duan  1   2   3 , Borui Shang  4 , Chun Hu  5 , Julien Steven Baker  1   2 , Zhihua Lin  6 , Jiali He  3 , Yanping Wang  7
Affiliations

Precautionary Behavior and Depression in Older Adults during the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Online Cross-Sectional Study in Hubei, China

Wei Liang et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

The large-scale COVID-19 pandemic has not only resulted in the risk of death but also augmented the levels of depression in community-dwelling older adults. The present study aimed to investigate the characteristics of depression in Chinese older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic, to examine the association of individual precautionary behavior with older adults' depression levels, and to identify the moderating role of socioeconomic indicators in the aforementioned association. Five hundred and sixteen older adults were recruited from five cities of Hubei province in China. They were asked to complete an online questionnaire survey. Results showed that 30.8% of participants indicated a significant depressive symptom during the pandemic. Older adults' depression levels differed significantly in marital status, living situation, education level, household income, subjective health status, and infected cases of acquaintances. Precautionary behavior change showed significant inverse associations with older adults' depression levels, where household income moderated this relationship. This is the first study to investigate the characteristics, behavioral correlates, and moderators of depression among Chinese older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic. Research findings may provide new insights into interventions and policy-making on individual precautionary behavior and mental health among older adults for future pandemics.

Keywords: COVID-19; depression; mental health; older adults; online survey; precautionary behavior; socioeconomic status.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Moderation effect of household income on behavior-depression association (n = 516). RCS = Residualized change score; * p < 0.05; ** p < 0.01; *** p < 0.001.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Plot of simple slopes showing the association between COVID-19 precautionary behavior change and depression level at different categories of household income.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. WHO Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Dashboard. [(accessed on 20 August 2020)]; Available online: https://covid19.who.int/
    1. Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University, USA. [(accessed on 15 October 2020)]; Available online: https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594....
    1. National Health Commission of China Update on the New Coronavirus Cases. [(accessed on 15 October 2020)]; Available online: http://health.people.com.cn/GB/26466/431463/431576/index.html.
    1. Sachs J.D., Horton R., Bagenal J., Amor Y.B., Caman O.K., Lafortune G. The Lancet COVID-19 Commission. Lancet. 2020;396:454–455. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(20)31494-X. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Wang C., Pan R., Wan X., Tan Y., Xu L., Ho C.S., Ho R.C. Immediate psychological responses and associated factors during the initial stage of the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) epidemic among the general population in China. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health. 2020;17:1729. doi: 10.3390/ijerph17051729. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources