The Positive Effect of Retirement Pensions on Mental Health in Older Adults A nationally representative cross-sectional survey

Abstract

Background: Nowadays, there are 95 million people have symptoms of depression in China, and the rate of the old adults is 25.55%. Over the years, the Chinese government has introduced numerous social security programs including the social pension.Retirement pensions have been widely applied for older adults. To date, no evidence regarding the correlation between retirement pensions and depression in older adults in China has been published. Objective: This cross-sectional survey aimed to examine the relationship between retirement pensions and depression in older people. Methods: Province-level socioeconomic characteristics were merged with microdata for respondents over 60 years from the 2020 China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study(CHARLS2020) Wave 5 (N = 8692). Respondents were asked if they were received retirement pension. Mental health was assessed using the 10-item Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale. The chi-square test was used to explore whether retirement pensions were associated with mental health status. A binary logistic regression model was used to evaluate this association further after controlling for confounding factors. Results: Overall, 81% (7039/8692) of the participants over 60 years had retirement pensions. Regression analyses revealed that older adults with retirement pensions (OR = 0.677, 95% CI: 0.563–0.815, p < .001) had a lower risk of depression than did those without retirement pensions. In addition, older adults who were female, single, illiterate, and living in rural areas, had 2 chronic diseases and had very poor self-related health(SRH) had a greater risk of depression. For province-level characteristics, older adults living in provinces in the first quartile of the number of beds per 10,000 persons in medical institutions were more likely to experience depressive symptoms, while there was no significant effect(OR = 0.822, 95% CI: 0.664–1.018, p = .072) (OR = 0.752, 95% CI: 0.594–0.953, p = .018)(OR = 0.877, 95% CI: 0.703–1.093, p = .242) of GDP on depression. Conclusions: Retirement pensions had a positive effect on the mental health of older adults who participated in this study. Older adults with a retirement pension have a lower risk of depression than those without a retirement pension. However, the ownership rate of retirement pensions remains low among older Chinese people. Therefore, the retirement pension penetration rate should be a priority.