Longitudinal health behaviour patterns among adults aged ≥50 years in China and their associations with trajectories of depressive symptoms

Abstract

Objectives: Against the background of the growing recognition of the need for a holistic perspective on health behaviour, we aim to identify longitudinal patterns of multiple health behaviours, and to assess associations of such patterns with depressive symptoms among older people in China. Methods: Using three waves of China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study data (n = 8439), we performed latent class growth analyses (LCGAs) to identify longitudinal patterns of multiple health behaviours. Random-effects models were estimated to assess associations between health behaviour patterns and depressive symptoms. Results:The best fitting LCGA model had seven classes: (1) connected active non-smokers (average posterior probability: 21.8%), ( 2) isolated active non-smokers (24.7%), (3) isolated inactive non-smokers (17.0%), (4) isolated active smokers (14.5%), ( 5) connected active smokers (12.2%), ( 6) increasingly connected and active non-smokers (5.4%), and ( 7) moderately connected inactive smokers (4.4%). Depressive symptoms were highest in the four classes with lower probabilities of social participation across waves. No evidence was found of change over time in depressive symptomatology gaps between people with different health behaviour trajectories. Conclusion: Health behaviour patterns characterized by consistently low social participation were associated with raised depressive symptomatology, suggesting that focusing on social participation may benefit later-life mental health promotion strategies.

Longitudinal association of spirituality with depressive symptom trajectories among older adults in mainland China

“…An ACCI score of 6–10, 11–15 and ≥ 16 has been shown to increase the risk of depressive symptoms by 4.9 times, 5.4 times and 7.6 times, respectively, suggesting that the higher medical comorbidity increases risk of depression, 47 which is similar to the results from the current study. The present study also found that higher levels of citizen participation predicted better depressive symptom trajectories, underscoring the importance of community participation in relieving depressive symptoms in older Chinese adults 48 …”

“…The present study also found that higher levels of citizen participation predicted better depressive symptom trajectories, underscoring the importance of community participation in relieving depressive symptoms in older Chinese adults. 48…”

Maintaining psychological well-being amidst the COVID-19 pandemic: The beneficial effects of health-promoting behaviors and sense of control

“…Using crosssectional data from 18 countries, Brand et al (2020) found that individuals who frequently exercised before the COVID-19 pandemic reported more positive affective responses during the lockdown than those who rarely exercised before the pandemic. However, to the best of our knowledge, only a few studies have revealed the longitudinal beneficial effects of health-promoting behaviors on psychological well-being (Feng et al, 2022;Stenlund et al, 2021), but none of them is related to the COVID-19 context. As a result, whether such a longitudinal protective effect remains even in the face of pandemic situation awaits further examination.…”

Longitudinal clustering of health behaviours and their association with multimorbidity in older adults in England: A latent class analysis

“…Previous studies that have used clustering techniques to analyse multiple behaviours in older adults have typically been cross-sectional, and so cannot test whether behaviour clusters change over time and if these changes affect long-term health [14][15][16]. While two studies have used longitudinal clustering to study a subset of SNAP behaviours in older adults [17,18], none have examined the relationship between these clusters and multimorbidity. In addition, the aforementioned studies limit themselves to a basic definition of multimorbidity (i.e.…”