Association between social capital and depression among older people: evidence from Anhui Province, China

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RESEARCH ARTICLE

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Association between social capital and depression among older people: evidence from Anhui Province, China Zhongliang Bai1,2,3, Zhiwei Xu3,4, Xiaoru Xu2, Xia Qin2, Wenbiao Hu3* and Zhi Hu1,2*

Abstract Background: To examine the relationship between social capital and depression among community-dwelling older adults in Anhui Province, China. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among older people selected from three cities of Anhui Province, China using a multi-stage stratified cluster random sampling method. Data were collected through questionnaire interviews and information on demographic characteristics, social capital, and depression was collected. The generalized linear model and classification and regression tree model were employed to assess the association between social capital and depression. Results: Totally, 1810 older people aged ≥60 years were included in the final analysis. Overall, all of the social capital dimensions were positively associated with depression: social participation (coefficient: 0.35, 95% CI: 0.22– 0.48), social support (coefficient:0.18, 95% CI:0.07–0.28), social connection (coefficient: 0.76, 95% CI:0.53–1.00), trust (coefficient:0.62, 95% CI:0.33–0.92), cohesion (coefficient:0.31, 95% CI:0.17–0.44) and reciprocity (coefficient:0.30, 95% CI:0.11–0.48), which suggested that older people with higher social capital had a smaller chance to develop depression. A complex joint effect of certain social capital dimensions on depression was also observed. The association with depression and the combinative effect of social capital varied among older adults across the cities. Conclusions: Our study suggests that improving social capital could aid in the prevention of depression among older adults. Keywords: Social capital, Depression, Elderly, Mental health, China

Background The proportion of older people (≥ 60 years) in many countries is increasing [1]. China has the highest number of older people in the world with a rapidly aging population [2], and geriatric depression remains a great public health challenge [3]. Recent evidence has suggested approximately one-fifth of older adults in China have * Correspondence: [email protected]; [email protected] 3 School of Public Health and Social Work, Institute of Health & Biomedical Innovation, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane 4059, Australia 1 Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Anhui Medical University, Hefei 230032, China Full list of author information is available at the end of the article

depressive disorders [4]. Depression cannot only impair functional ability, reduce the quality of life and increase the mortality of older adults, but also inflicts a heavy economic burden upon older adults themselves, the society, and the healthcare system [5]. One of the key measures of preventing depression in older people is to identify associated risk factors of depression. Common risk factors of depression include advanced age, female, unfavorable economic leve

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