This study examined the relationships between social capital, perceived neighborhood environment, and depressive symptoms among older adults living in rural China, and the moderating effect of self-rated health (SRH) in these relationships.

A quota sampling method was applied to recruit 447 participants aged 60 years and older in rural communities in Jilin province, China in 2019.

Depressive symptoms were measured by the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale. Structural equation modeling was used to build latent constructs of social capital and test the proposed model. Multiple group analysis was used to test the moderation effects.

Cognitive social capital and structural social capital were both associated with depressive symptoms controlling for participants’ demographics, socioeconomic status, and health status. After adding perceived environment variables in the model, the relationship between cognitive social capital and depressive symptoms became nonsignificant, while structural social capital remained became a significant factor (β = −.168, p < .01). Satisfaction with health care was significantly associated with depressive symptoms among those with poor SRH (β = −.272, p < .01), whereas satisfaction with security and transportation were strongly associated with depressive symptoms among those with good SRH (security: β = −.148, p < .01; transportation: β = −.174, p < .01).

Study findings highlighted the importance of social capital and neighborhood environment as potential protective factors of depressive symptoms in later life. Policy and intervention implications were also discussed.

Patients with geriatric depression exhibit a spectrum of symptoms ranging from mild to severe cognitive impairment which could potentially lead to the development of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The aim of the study is to assess the alterations of the default mode network (DMN) in remitted geriatric depression (RGD) patients and whether it could serve as an underlying neuropathological mechanism associated with the risk of progression of AD.

Cross-sectional study.

A total of 154 participants, comprising 66 RGD subjects (which included 27 patients with comorbid amnestic mild cognitive impairment [aMCI] and 39 without aMCI [RGD]), 45 aMCI subjects without a history of depression (aMCI), and 43 matched healthy comparisons (HC), were recruited.

All participants completed neuropsychological tests and underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Posterior cingulate cortex (PCC)-seeded DMN functional connectivity (FC) along with cognitive function were compared among the four groups, and correlation analyses were conducted.

In contrast to HC, RGD, aMCI, and RGD-aMCI subjects showed significant impairment across all domains of cognitive functions except for attention. Furthermore, compared with HC, there was a similar and significant decrease in PCC-seed FC in the bilateral medial superior frontal gyrus (M-SFG) in the RGD, aMCI, and RGD-aMCI groups.

The aberrations in rsFC of the DMN were associated with cognitive deficits in RGD patients and might potentially reflect an underlying neuropathological mechanism for the increased risk of developing AD. Therefore, altered connectivity in the DMN could serve as a potential neural marker for the conversion of geriatric depression to AD.

Depression is prevalent among older persons, which seriously threatens their life satisfaction. This study aimed to explore the internal mechanisms by which depression influences life satisfaction among the elderly, as well as the mediating and moderating effects of ostracism and economic income, respectively, in a sample of rural older adults across China.

This was a cross-sectional survey conducted as part of the project “Thousands of People and Hundreds of Villages (2019).”

Participants were rural older adults from 31 provincial-level administrative units across China.

The sample composed of 1,754 participants aged 60 years and over.

Depression was assessed with the depression subscale of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales, life satisfaction with the Satisfaction with Life Scale, ostracism with the Ostracism Experience Scale (OES), and economic income and other control variables with related demographic scales. Moderation and mediation analyses were performed using the regression-based approach as conducted by Hayes (2013).

Depression negatively predicted life satisfaction among the elderly. Ostracism played a partially mediating role between depression and life satisfaction. Economic income moderated the effect of depression and ostracism on life satisfaction: High economic income weakened the negative effect of depression on life satisfaction and enhanced the negative effect of ostracism on life satisfaction.

Improving depressed elderly people’s interpersonal relationships and financial support could improve their life satisfaction.

Based on a cohort from the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey (CLHLS), we aimed to evaluate the relationship between sleep duration and the incidence of cognitive impairment among older Chinese adults.

We conducted a prospective analysis based on 3692 participants from the CLHLS at baseline (in 2011), and as a 3-year follow-up (till 2014), 531 participants (14.4%) had cognitive impairment, which was defined as a Mini-Mental State Examination score <24. Sleep duration was classified into three groups: short (≤5 hours/day), normal (>5 but <10 hours), and long (≥10 hours/day). A logistic regression model was used to examine the association between baseline sleep duration and cognitive impairment after adjusting for sociodemographic data, living habits, and health conditions.

Five hundred sixty-two participants (15.2%) were in the short-duration group, and 608 participants (16.5%) were in the long-duration group. After adjusting for multiple potential confounders, compared with normal sleep duration, long sleep duration was associated with the incidence of cognitive impairment (OR = 1.309, 95% CI: 1.019–1.683), especially among men (OR = 1.527, 95% CI: 1.041–2.240) and those having a primary and above education level (OR = 1.559, 95% CI: 1.029–2.361). No significant association was observed between short sleep duration and cognitive impairment (OR = 0.860, 95% CI: 0.646–1.145).

Excessive sleep may increase the risk of cognitive impairment in older individuals. It may be a suggestive sign of early neurodegeneration and may be a useful clinical tool to identify those at a higher risk of progressing to cognitive impairment.

The study’s aims were (i) to identify the prevalence of health anxiety (HA) among the elderly in urban community healthcare centers and (ii) to determine whether HA is related to social, physical, or psychological factors.

It is a population-based observational study.

Data were collected from urban community healthcare centers in Chengdu, China, from October 2016 to March 2017.

A total of 893 participants aged ≥ 60 years.

The Short HA Inventory was used for HA assessment. Mental health status was assessed using the Geriatric Depression Inventory and Mini-Mental State Examination. Other information was collected through face-to-face interviews. Data analysis was performed using SPSS 19.0.

The point prevalence rate of HA was 9.53% (95%CI = 6.99%–12.07%). The number of chronic diseases was a positive factor associated with HA in a regression analysis. As compared with participants without chronic diseases, people with one (OR = 1.796; 95%CI = 0.546–5.909), two (OR = 2.922; 95%CI = 0.897–9.511), and three chronic diseases (OR = 6.448; 95%CI = 2.147–19.363) had higher odds of suffering from HA.

The prevalence of HA was high in the elderly population. Certain physical conditions, such as having chronic diseases, were significant impact factors. More attention should be paid to the situation of HA in this population.

To explore the prevalence of EM in an older Chinese population and examine the mediating role of three psychosocial variables – psychological vulnerability, housework involvement, and financial independence – in the relationship between physical frailty and EM.

Cross-sectional analysis.

The data source was the Third Survey on Chinese Women’s Social Status (SCSSW), which is a nationwide decennial survey conducted in 2010.

Community-dwelling adults aged 60 and older who participated in SCSSW (N = 3516).

The past-year prevalence of EM and its seven subtypes, physical frailty, psychological vulnerability, housework involvement, financial independence, and demographic characteristics.

The past-year prevalence of EM was 4% among Chinese older adults, with psychological abuse being the most common subtype (3.9%). A higher level of physical frailty had a direct influence on EM. Older adults with higher levels of physical frailty were more likely to have higher levels of psychological vulnerability (anxiety, loneliness, and uselessness) and lower levels of housework involvement, which further correlated with increased risk of EM. Frail Chinese older adults were less likely to have financial independence, which in turn, surprisingly predicted a lower probability of EM.

In this nationally representative sample, we provided the first evidence of the prevalence of EM among Chinese older adults and expanded the global understanding of EM by examining the mediating role of three psychosocial variables. Future studies are warranted to corroborate our findings and identify factors contributing to the complex mechanism of EM.