Identification, Trend Analysis and Influencing Factors of Mental Health Status of the Chinese Older Adults.

Hongyan Yang,Jun Ma,Fanjie Li,Hongwei Hu

doi:10.3390/ijerph17218251

Abstract

This study aimed to analyse the classification, development trends and the influencing factors of the Chinese older adults’ mental health state. Based on longitudinal data of Chinese older adults from 2005 to 2014, 2077 older adults aged 64 to 105 were included and the Latent Class Model, Latent Growth Mixture Model and Multinomial Logit models were employed in this study. We find that there are three types of mental health state of the Chinese older adults: negative, positive and contradictory; and the contradictory type could easily turn into negative or positive mental health state. There are four types of dynamic trends of mental health state: persistently negative, persistently positive, pro-negative, and pro-positive. About 40% of the older adults could maintain positive mental health state, and the pro-negative accounts for larger proportion than the pro-positive. Better economic status, good living habits, cohabitation with family members and pension coverage are beneficial for positive mental health state of the Chinese older adults. There is significant heterogeneity in the state as well as development trends of mental health of the older adults. The older adults with contradictory and negative types of mental health state should get timely psychological help to avoid turning into negative state. A series of polices are needed to promote mental health for the older adults in China.

Highlights

Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity [1]
Based on the above background, this present study focuses on the following topics: (1) the mental health state and its corresponding classification of the Chinese older adults; (2) the development trend analysis of mental health of the older adults as they are getting older; (3) the influencing factors of different mental health trend types of the older adults
The results showed that mental health state of the older adults could be classified into three types including negative type, contradictory type and positive type

Summary

Introduction

Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity [1]. According to the European MentDis_ICF65+ study, 1/2 older adults aged 65–84 had experienced mental disorder in their lifetime, 1/3 had experienced past year, and about 1/4 had a mental disorder currently [2]. In a meta-analysis, 16.5% of older adults in Western countries suffered from lifetime major depression [3]. According to the Fourth Survey for Living Conditions of Urban and Rural Elderly in China, in 2015, about 36.6% of the older adults often or sometimes feel lonely [4]. One survey showed that the prevalence of depressive symptom among older adults in China was 39.96% [5], and the prevalence was 30.0% in rural China [6]. Chinese older adults are facing huge challenges in mental health, and the classification, development trends and influencing factors become increasingly urgent in academic research and policy-making in China

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion