The relationship between walking ability, self-rated health, and depressive symptoms in middle-aged and elderly people after controlling demographic, health status, and lifestyle variables

Abstract

The global aging problem is very serious. With the increase of age, the risk of depression in the elderly is also increasing. It is necessary to find effective strategies to reduce the depressive symptoms of the elderly. This study investigated the relationship between depressive symptoms, walking ability, and self-evaluation health of middle-aged and elderly Chinese after controlling demographic variables, health status, and lifestyle. The data is from the China health and retirement longitudinal study database in 2018. Six thousand eight hundred thirty-five people over the age of 50 have complete information on walking ability, self-assessed health status, and depressive symptoms. SPSS 27.0 software was used to conduct Z-test, logistic regression and linear hierarchical regression analysis on the collected data. The results showed that poor walking ability and poor self-evaluation health status of middle-aged and elderly people were significantly related to depression. The study concluded that middle-aged and elderly people with good walking ability and self-rated health status had a lower risk of depression. This study can provide reference for formulating specific and effective intervention measures for senile depression.

The relationship between frailty, walking ability, and depression in elderly Chinese people

“…[ 17 ] The decline of walking ability may lead to the reduction of people’s social activities, which may lead to depression, because people may feel lonely or isolated. [ 18 ] However, there is scant empirical data about the association between depression and old frailty and walking capacity, and the scientific rigor of different studies differs. The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between the walking ability of the elderly and the symptoms of frailty and depression after adjusting Demographics variables, health status and lifestyle.…”