Clinical Interventions in Aging (Dec 2019)

Association Between Multimorbidity and Depressive Symptom Among Community-Dwelling Elders in Eastern China

  • You L,
  • Yu Z,
  • Zhang X,
  • Wu M,
  • Lin S,
  • Zhu Y,
  • Xu Z,
  • Lu J,
  • Wei F,
  • Tang M,
  • Wang J,
  • Jin M,
  • Chen K

Journal volume & issue
Vol. Volume 14
pp. 2273 – 2280

Abstract

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Liuqing You,1 Zhebin Yu,1 Xiaocong Zhang,1 Mengyin Wu,1 Shujuan Lin,1 Yao Zhu,1 Zenghao Xu,1 Jieming Lu,1 Fang Wei,1 Mengling Tang,1 Jianbing Wang,1 Mingjuan Jin,1 Kun Chen1,2 1Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Zhejiang, Hangzhou, People’s Republic of China; 2Cancer Institute, The Second Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Mingjuan Jin; Kun Chen Email [email protected]; [email protected]: This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of depressive symptoms and the association between multimorbidity and depressive symptoms among the elderly in eastern China.Patients and methods: A multicenter cross-sectional study was conducted in four cities (Jianggan, Yiwu and Anji in Zhejiang Province and Taixing in Jiangsu Province) in eastern China. We collected the information on 27 chronic conditions through the self-reported medical history and used the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) short form to evaluate depressive symptoms. Multivariate Logistic regression was used to evaluate the relationship between multimorbidity and depressive symptoms.Results: Five thousand two hundred and ninety-six participants were included into the current study, among which 2687 (50.74%) were female, with the mean ± SD age 72.0 ± 8.1 years old. The overall prevalence of depressive symptoms in eastern China was 23.5%. And the percentage of multimorbidity in depressed participants was higher compared with non-depressed participants (50.8% vs 38.8%, P<0.001). The univariate model and adjusted model suggested that participants with multiple chronic diseases were more likely to have a depressive symptom (adjusted OR=1.42; 95% CIs 1.19–1.70).Conclusion: Depressive symptom was significantly associated with multimorbidity among the community-dwelling elderly population in eastern China.Keywords: depressive symptom, multimorbidity, social health, elders

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