Heatwaves and its impact on the depressive symptoms among Chinese community-dwelling older adults: Examining the role of social participation

Abstract

Objectives

Based on the Environment-Person Fit Perspective, this study explores the relationship between heatwaves and subsequent depressive symptoms among older Chinese community dwellers. Additionally, the study investigates if this association varies among older adults with different levels of social participation.

Methods

Heatwaves were defined as the frequency of occurrences where daily maximum temperature exceeded 35 °C for 3 consecutive days. A sample including 7124 older adults aged 55 and above was selected from the 2018 China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study. Depressive symptoms were measured by the 10-item Centre for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale. Social participation was measured by volunteer participation and leisure participation. Multilevel fixed effect model was employed to investigate the temporal association between heatwaves and depressive symptoms, as well as the moderating effect of social participation.

Results

This study found that older adults who had experienced a greater number of heatwaves presented more severe depressive symptoms (b = 0.66, p < 0.001). However, a high level of leisure participation buffered the effect of heatwaves on depressive symptoms (b = ̶ 0.52, p < 0.05).

Conclusions

This study highlighted the differential impact of heatwaves on mental health outcomes among older adults depending on their levels of social participation. Our findings provide valuable insights into designing an integrative heatwave adaption scheme that simultaneously focuses on temperature adjustment and social participation enhancement.