A Study on the Association between Lifestyle, Psychological State, and Diabetes Mellitus among Chinese Elderly

Abstract

This study is based on the questionnaire data from the 2018 China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) to analyze the association between lifestyle, psychological status, and the prevalence of Diabetes Mellitus (DM) among Chinese adults aged 60 and above. A total of 9,695 participants were included in the study. Variance analysis, binary logistic regression, negative binomial regression and random forest were employed to examine the impact of sociodemographic factors (gender, highest level of education, marital status), lifestyle factors (smoking, alcohol consumption, physical activity, sleep), and depression on diabetes, as well as the mediating role of depression. The results indicate that both lifestyle factors and depression have varying degrees of influence on diabetes. Additionally, the highest level of education and marital status are associated with diabetes through their effects on depression.