TY - JOUR
T1 - Precautionary behavior and depression in older adults during the covid-19 pandemic
T2 - An online cross-sectional study in Hubei, China
AU - Liang, Wei
AU - Duan, Yanping
AU - Shang, Borui
AU - Hu, Chun
AU - Baker, Julien
AU - Lin, Zhihua
AU - He, Jiali
AU - Wang, Yanping
N1 - Funding Information:
Funding: This research was supported by the Start-Up Grant and Strategic Development Fund (SDF) of Hong Kong Baptist University. The funding organization had no role in the study design, study implementation, data collection, data analysis, manuscript preparation, or publication decision. The work is the responsibility of the authors.
PY - 2021/2/14
Y1 - 2021/2/14
N2 - The large-scale COVID-19 pandemic has not only resulted in the risk of death but also augmented the levels of depression in community-dwelling older adults. The present study aimed to investigate the characteristics of depression in Chinese older adults during the COVID-19 pan-demic, to examine the association of individual precautionary behavior with older adults’ depression levels, and to identify the moderating role of socioeconomic indicators in the aforementioned association. Five hundred and sixteen older adults were recruited from five cities of Hubei province in China. They were asked to complete an online questionnaire survey. Results showed that 30.8% of participants indicated a significant depressive symptom during the pandemic. Older adults’ depression levels differed significantly in marital status, living situation, education level, household income, subjective health status, and infected cases of acquaintances. Precautionary behavior change showed significant inverse associations with older adults’ depression levels, where household income moderated this relationship. This is the first study to investigate the characteristics, behavioral correlates, and moderators of depression among Chinese older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic. Research findings may provide new insights into interventions and policy-making on individual precautionary behavior and mental health among older adults for future pan-demics.
AB - The large-scale COVID-19 pandemic has not only resulted in the risk of death but also augmented the levels of depression in community-dwelling older adults. The present study aimed to investigate the characteristics of depression in Chinese older adults during the COVID-19 pan-demic, to examine the association of individual precautionary behavior with older adults’ depression levels, and to identify the moderating role of socioeconomic indicators in the aforementioned association. Five hundred and sixteen older adults were recruited from five cities of Hubei province in China. They were asked to complete an online questionnaire survey. Results showed that 30.8% of participants indicated a significant depressive symptom during the pandemic. Older adults’ depression levels differed significantly in marital status, living situation, education level, household income, subjective health status, and infected cases of acquaintances. Precautionary behavior change showed significant inverse associations with older adults’ depression levels, where household income moderated this relationship. This is the first study to investigate the characteristics, behavioral correlates, and moderators of depression among Chinese older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic. Research findings may provide new insights into interventions and policy-making on individual precautionary behavior and mental health among older adults for future pan-demics.
KW - COVID-19
KW - Depression
KW - Mental health
KW - Older adults
KW - Online survey
KW - Precautionary behavior
KW - Socioeconomic status
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85100761684&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/ijerph18041853
DO - 10.3390/ijerph18041853
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 33672885
AN - SCOPUS:85100761684
SN - 1661-7827
VL - 18
JO - International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
JF - International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
IS - 4
M1 - 1853
ER -