Instrumental support primarily provided by adult children and trajectories of depressive symptoms among older adults with disabilities in rural China

Abstract

Objectives

This study aimed to examine the trajectories of depressive symptoms over a 5-year period in a sample of community-dwelling older adults with disabilities in rural China, and the association between duration of instrumental support primarily provided by adult children and the trajectories of depressive symptoms.

Methods

Data were drawn from three waves of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (2011–2015). The sample included 1,466 older adults living in rural areas aged 60 and over who had at least one child in all three waves. Duration of instrumental support provided by adult children was measured by the number of waves that older adults received instrumental support primarily from any adult children in the data collection. Growth mixture modelling was used to identify the trajectory classes of depressive symptoms among these older adults, and logistic regression was used to examine the association between duration of instrumental support primarily provided by adult children and the trajectory classes of depressive symptoms.

Results

This study identified two distinct trajectories of depressive symptoms among the respondents: high but decreasing levels of symptoms and persistently low levels of symptoms. Respondents who received a longer duration of instrumental support primarily from adult children were more likely to have high but decreasing symptoms after controlling for other covariates.

Conclusion

The findings have important implications for promoting the mental health of older adults with disabilities in rural China. There are still very limited long-term care services and programs are available for older adults, particularly in rural China. It is critical to develop these services at both community and institutional levels to meet the care needs of older adults and their families.

Keywords:

• Older adults with disabilities
• instrumental support primarily from adult children
• trajectory of depressive symptoms
• duration of support

Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) team for providing data.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by the National Social Science Fund of China (grant number 21AZD076).