Background: Hearing impairment is a common chronic condition which can be closely related to people's health. However, current studies on this topic are quite limited in developing countries, and few with standardized audiometric measurement and multiple health outcomes. Therefore, we aimed to explore the association between hearing impairment and its severity with physical and mental health among Chinese middle-aged and older adults. Methods: We obtained data from two sources: (1) China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) 2011, 2013, and 2015, in which hearing impairment was measured by asking whether participants aged 45 years old had hearing problems; and (2) Hearing Survey 2019, the baseline survey of a randomized controlled trial conducted in Shandong Province of China, including 376 middle-aged and older participants. The severity of hearing impairment was identified by pure tone average of hearing thresholds at 0.5, 1, 2, and 4 kHz. Results: In CHARLS, 1248 (8.36%) participants suffered from hearing impairment at baseline, and hearing-impaired individuals were more likely to have chronic diseases, impaired activities of daily living (ADLs), impaired instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs) and depressive symptoms. For the 376 hearing-impaired participants in Hearing Survey 2019, 30.32, 38.30 and 31.38% of them had moderate, severe and profound hearing impairment, respectively. As the severity of hearing impairment increased, individuals were likely to have impaired ADLs, impaired IADLs and depressive symptoms. Conclusions: Hearing impairment and its severity were closely related to multiple physical and mental health outcomes among Chinese middle-aged and older adults. Actions should be taken to prevent and treat hearing impairment, so as to improve people's health and well-being.

The purpose of this study was to collect the evidence of the relationship between retirement and depression through meta-analysis, and further analyze the heterogeneity of results. The quality of the studies was rated based on ten predefined criteria. We searched articles published between 1980 and 2020 and a total of 25 longitudinal studies were included in the meta-analysis. The meta-analysis results showed that retirement was associated with more depressive symptoms (d =0.044, 95%CI 0.008 to 0.080). The association of involuntary retirement (d = 0.180, 95%CI 0.061 to 0.299) with more depressive symptoms was stronger than voluntary retirement (d = 0.086, 95%CI -0.018 to 0.190) and regulatory retirement (d = 0.009, 95%CI -0.079 to 0.097). Retirement was significantly associated with more depressive symptoms in eastern developed countries (d = 0.126, 95%CI 0.041 to 0.210), and the association was stronger than that in western developed countries (d = 0.016, 95%CI -0.023 to 0.055). These findings suggest that the transition to retirement was associated with higher risk of depression and this association varied by the type of retirement and country. Further empirical studies need to explore the mechanism of retirement and depression and whether such association was linked with socio-economic position.

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Background Hearing loss is quite prevalent and can be related to people’s quality of life. To our knowledge, there are limited studies assessing the efficacy of hearing interventions on quality of life in adults. Therefore, we aim to conduct a randomized controlled trial (RCT) to determine the impact and cost-effectiveness of community-based hearing rehabilitation on quality of life among Chinese adults with hearing loss. Methods/design In this two-arm feasibility study, participants aged 16 and above with some degree of hearing loss (n = 464) will be recruited from Linyi City, Shandong Province. They are randomly assigned to the treatment group or the control group. Those in the treatment group are prescribed with hearing aids, while those in the control group receive no intervention. Reinstruction in use of devices is provided for the treatment group during booster visits held 12 months post-randomization or unscheduled interim visits when necessary. Data are collected at baseline and the follow-up 20 months later. The primary outcome is changes in quality of life over a 20-month study period. Secondary outcomes include sub-dimensions in quality of life, physical functioning, chronic diseases, cognitive function, depression, social support, hospitalizations, falls, and healthcare costs. Finally, we will evaluate whether hearing aids intervention is cost-effective to apply in a large scale. Discussion The trial is designed to evaluate the impact and cost-effectiveness of a community-based rehabilitation intervention on quality of life among Chinese adults with hearing loss. We hope that it would help improve the well-being for Chinese adults and provide references in policy and practice for China and other countries. Trial registration Chinese Clinical Trial Registry ChiCTR1900024739. Registered on 26 July 2019.

The 1950s–1970s Chinese send-down movement can be treated as a natural experiment to study the impact of adolescent exposure on subsequent health. This paper used China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) 2010 data to evaluate the long-term impact of the Chinese send-down movement on individuals health later in life. Drawing from the life course perspective, the results from the difference-in-difference model suggested that the send-down experience had a significant impact on worse self-rated health; the pathways from structural equation models showed that subsequent achievements—age of marriage and educational attainment—had mediating effects leading the send-down experience to worse self-rated health and better mental 21health, respectively. Taken together, our results highlight the roles of the send-down experience and post–send-down characteristics in shaping health outcomes later in life.