An association study of depressive symptoms in adult couples over 50 years of age.

Abstract

Background: Depression can lead to reduced physical activity, reduced quality of life, and self-sadness or even suicide, resulting in a huge burden of disease and financial loss.

Objective: To study the associated factors of depressive symptoms in adult couples over the age of 50.

Methods: The study collected data from the European Health, Ageing and Retirement Survey Study (SHARE) in 2013, 2015, 2017 and 2019/2020, and extracted couples over the age of 50. Logistic regression was used to analyze the associated factors of depressive symptoms in couples.

Results: Binary Logistic regression showed the husbands' age (OR: 1.41, 95%CI: (1.11, 1.80)) and social activities (OR: 0.60, 95%CI: (0.45, 0.79)) were associated with depressive symptoms in wives. Wives' education level (OR: 0.62, 95%CI: (0.46, 0.85)), life satisfaction (OR: 0.57, 95%CI: (0.39, 0.84)) and number of chronic diseases (OR: 1.38, 95%CI: (1.10, 1.73)) were associated with depressive symptoms in husbands. Multinomial logistic regression found that couple's age "≥ 65 years" (OR: 1.45, 95%CI: (1.11, 1.90)), "low" education level (OR: 1.64, 95%CI: (1.07, 2.52)), "having" social activities (OR: 0.34, 95%CI: (0.19, 0.60)), self-rated health "good" (OR: 0.48, 95%CI: (0.29, 0.80)), life satisfaction "very satisfied" (OR: 0.48, 95%CI: (0.31, 0.75)) and "having" social activities (OR: 0.34, 95%CI: (0.19, 0.60)) were associated with the risk of depressive symptoms in couples. Having "≥ 2" chronic diseases (OR: 1.94, 95%CI: (1.22, 3.10)) was also associated with depressive symptoms in couples.

Conclusion: Age, education level, social activities, life satisfaction, self-rated health and number of chronic diseases were associated with depressive symptoms in both individuals and couples.