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 Jul;21(4):483-490.
doi: 10.1111/psyg.12696. Epub 2021 May 6.

Social frailty and longitudinal risk of depressive symptoms in a Chinese population: the Rugao Longevity and Aging Study

ZeKun Chen #  1 , XiaoYan Jiang #  1 , GuoPing Shi  2 , Yong Wang  2 , XueFeng Chu  2 , ZhengDong Wang  2 , JiangHong Guo  2 , YinSheng Zhu  2 , Jie Chen  3   4 , XiaoFeng Wang  3   4   5 , ZhiJun Bao  3   4
Affiliations

Social frailty and longitudinal risk of depressive symptoms in a Chinese population: the Rugao Longevity and Aging Study

ZeKun Chen et al. Psychogeriatrics. 2021 Jul.

Abstract

Aim: To explore the cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between social frailty (SF) and incident depressive symptoms in a Chinese population.

Methods: SF was measured with 6 questions (6 points maximum; 0-1 = non-SF, 2-3 = pre-SF, 4-6 = SF). Depressive symptoms were defined as a score of ≥6 on the Geriatric Depression Scale. Compared to baseline, participants with a ≥2-point increase in the Geriatric Depression Scale score were considered to have worsening depressive symptoms.

Results: At baseline, among 1764 participants, 9.9% (n = 175) had depressive symptoms, 3.6% (n = 61) were SF, and 38.2% (n = 650) were pre-SF. The percentage of depressive symptoms increased with SF status from 5.1% (non-SF) to 12.9% (pre-SF), to 41.0% (SF). In cross-sectional analysis, after adjustments for multiple covariates, depressive symptoms were significantly associated with both pre-SF (odds ratio (OR) = 2.94, 95% confidence interval (CI) 2.01-4.32) and SF (OR = 16.70, 95% CI 8.80-31.71). During the 3-year follow-up period, 10.0% (n = 117) of the participants developed depressive symptoms. In longitudinal analyses, after multiple adjustments, SF and pre-SF were associated with a 2.31-fold (95% CI 1.10-4.88) and 1.58-fold (95% CI 1.05-2.38) increased risk of incidence of depressive symptoms, respectively. Among participants without depressive symptoms at baseline, 23.2% had worsening depressive symptoms, and SF was associated with increased risk of worsening depressive symptoms (OR = 2.07, 95% CI 1.18-3.65).

Conclusions: Our findings suggested that SF may be a predictor of depression among Chinese community-dwelling older adults. In addition, in elders with no depressive symptoms at baseline, those with SF had greater odds of worsening depressive symptoms 3 years later.

Keywords: depressive symptoms; elderly people; frailty; social factors.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

REFERENCES

    1. Potter GG, Steffens DC. Contribution of depression to cognitive impairment and dementia in older adults. Neurologist 2007; 13: 105-117.
    1. Schwarzbach M, Luppa M, Forstmeier S, König HH, Riedel-Heller SG. Social relations and depression in late life-a systematic review. Int J Geriatr Psychiatry 2014; 29: 1-21.
    1. Morley JE, Vellas B, van Kan GA et al. Frailty consensus: a call to action. J Am Med Dir Assoc 2013; 14: 392-397.
    1. Fried LP, Tangen CM, Walston J et al. Frailty in older adults: evidence for a phenotype. J Gerontol A-Biol 2001; 56: M146-M156.
    1. van Oostrom SH, van der A DL, Rietman ML et al. A four-domain approach of frailty explored in the Doetinchem Cohort Study. BMC Geriatr 2017; 17: 196.

LinkOut - more resources