Study On Depression Status And Its Influence Factors Of Rural Eldly In China

Background:World Health Organization (WHO) pointed out that in almost every country, the growth of the population proportion of60+years old faster than any other age groups. According to WHO, the depression will become the second high burden of disease and disability in2020on the assessment of the global burden of disease. China have the largest scale elderly population in the world, and is one of the fastest aging process in the world, challenges and threats of the population aging are more serious than other countries. The elderly, as a vulnerable group, compared with the general population, were more prone to health problems, especially the emotional problems. Depression is very common and very important mental illness in elderly, have serious damage to the psychosomatic health of older people.Objective:To explore the possible influencing factors of the depression of the rural elderly in China by analyze the status and its distribution in the different characteristics of the population; based on the analysis of the influence factors, put forward the feasible policy and strategy of targeted suggestions and measures to prevent the depression.Methods:Analyze the status and its influencing factors of the rural elderly using the national baseline survey data of China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS). Descript social demographic characteristics, socioeconomic status, status of depression and its distribution of respondents statistically. Analyze the risk factors of the depression of the rural elderly using chi-square test and logistic regression model.Results:Totally5791of the rural elderly people over the age of60in this nationally survey, distributed in28provinces,150units at the county level and450village-level units. The results of reliability test of CES-D scale show that the general Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient of the scale is0.798. Cronbach’s Alpha if item deleted are between0.760and0.804; Corrected Item-Total Correlation are between0.278and0.643; the difference of Scale Mean if Item Deleted and Scale Variance if Item Deleted were not large, suggest that the scale has good internal consistency and the reliability is good.The men score of depression in the elderly is10.1271±6.29459, the male is9.1463±5.94945and the female is11.0465±6.46907. The probability of depression in female (OR=1.628) is larger than the male, the older group is greater than the low age group, the Mid-region (OR=1.366) and West-region (OR=1.481) is larger than the Eastern-region, the illiteracy is larger than other cultural groups, the elderly people who living alone is greater than the person that reside nonexclusive.The results of multivariable Logistic regression analysis show that gender, region, whether to live alone, smoking, body pain, sleep time, ill in4weeks, ADL, NCDs, social activities, self-rported health, life satisfaction, self-reported memory, self-rported hearing status have influence on the depressive symptoms in the rural elderly. Compared to the male, the female (OR=1.628) were more prone to depression; compared with the eastern China rural elderly, the central (OR=1.366) and the western (OR=1.481) were more prone to depression; compared with the rural elderly who live alone, the rural elderly who not alone(OR=0.802) were less prone to depression; compared with the rural elderly who do not smoke, the smoker (OR=0.827) were less prone to depression; compared with the rural elderly who have body pain, the rural elderly without body pain (OR=0.398) were less prone to depression; compared to the rural elderly whose sleep time less than4hours, the rural elderly whose sleep time is4-6hours (OR=0.710),6-8hours (OR=0.394) and>8hours (OR=0.321) were less prone to depression; compared with the rural elderly who sick in four weeks, the rural elderly who not sick (OR=0.693) were less prone to depression; compared with the rural elderly without impaired ADL, the rural elderly with impaired ADL (OR=1.923) were more prone to depression; compared with the rural elderly people who without NCDs, the rural elderly people who suffering NCDs (OR=1.387) were more prone to depression; Compared with non-social activities in the rural elderly, the rural elderly have social activities (OR=0.844) less prone to depression; compared with the rural elderly with good self-reported health, the rural elderly with very good self-reported health (OR=1.991) are more prone to depression; compared with the rural elderly with excellent hearing, the rural elderly with very good hearing (OR=1.865), good hearing (OR=1.679), general hearing (OR=2.377) and poor hearing (OR=2.287) are more prone to depression; compared with the rural elderly with excellent memory, the rural elderly with very good memory (OR=1.321), good memory (OR=3.228), general memory (OR=1.489) and bad memory (OR=2.624) are more prone to depression; compared with the rural elderly with very good life satisfication, the rural elderly with good life satisfication (OR=1.855), bad life satisfication (OR=4.809), very bad life satisfication (OR=11.931) are more prone to depression.Conclusions:To prevent and control the occurrence of depression in the elderly, the government should gradually establish and improve the mental health care services and security system for the elderly which adapted with country’s economic and social development, increase financial support to pension services, focusing on socially disadvantaged older age groups, strengthening training and education of rural doctors; in social dimension:carry out actively various forms of health education, mobilise extensively social activities of respecting and caring the older, creating more sports facilities and activities for the elderly in rural areas; in household level:give full play to the role of spiritual solace of the family, children should not only take the duty to support the elderly in the financial aspects, but should pay attention to the spirit of love; for older people themselves:the elderly should consciously understand the mental health knowledge and actively participate in social activities to strengthen interpersonal and communication, to develop healthy lifestyles to enhance physical and mental health.