A Study On The Mental Health Of Urban Retirees Based On Socioeconomic Status

Objective: To explore the effect of socioeconomic status on the mental health of retired population in urban areas of China.It provides theoretical basis and optimization scheme for improving the mental health level of retired population in urban areas of our country.Methods: The data for this study were collected from the China Health and Aging Tracking Survey Database(CHARLS)2018 hosted by the Social Science Survey Center of Peking University.In terms of data analysis,Stata software was first used to clean the obtained data,and a total of 1625 samples meeting the requirements of this study were obtained after the cleaning.The effects of socioeconomic status on mental health were analyzed by means of independent sample t-test,analysis of variance and regression model construction,and the mediating model was constructed by AMOS software to explore the effects of lifestyle as a mediating variable on mental health.Results :(1)Income dimension and years of education in social and economic status were positively correlated with the cognitive level of China’s urban retired population(P<0.001).Compared with the low-income group,the MMSE scores of the middle,middle and high income groups increased by 1.42,1.23 and 1.43 units,respectively.Compared with the group with the lowest number of years of education,the scores of those with 7-12 years of education and those with more than 12 years of education increased by 1.76 and 2.46 units,respectively.(2)Income and years of education in social and economic status were negatively correlated with the depression level of Chinese urban retirees.Compared with the low-income group,the depression score in the middle-income group decreased by1.12 units(P<0.05),and the depression score in the middle and high income groups decreased by 1.93 and 2.63 units(P<0.001),respectively.Compared with the group with the lowest years of education,the scores of the subjects with 7-12 years of education decreased by 0.89(P<0.01),and the scores of the subjects with more than12 years of education decreased by 1.42,which was statistically insignificant.After including gender,age and marriage factors,the scores of subjects with 7-12 years of education and those with more than 12 years of education decreased by 1.76 and 2.46(P<0.05),respectively,compared with those with the lowest years of education.(3)In terms of gender difference,the cognitive level of male retirees in China was significantly higher than that of female respondents(P<0.001),and the level of depression was lower than that of female respondents(P<0.001).(4)The standardized path index of the effect of lifestyle on cognition and depression level was 0.172 and-0.146,respectively,indicating that lifestyle was significantly positively correlated with individual cognition level(P<0.001),and was significantly negatively correlated with depression level(P<0.01).Conclusion: 1.Socioeconomic status has a positive effect on the mental health level of urban retirees.Urban retirees with higher income and years of education tended to have higher mental health,more complete cognitive function and lower depression levels.2.Socioeconomic status indirectly affects the mental health level of urban retirees through the way it affects their lifestyle.