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Abstract
Objectives
The literature highlights the role of physical activities in reducing depression, primarily in clinical samples and international longitudinal studies on older adults with diabetes. Based on Andersen’s Behavioral Model, this study aims to describe the trajectory of depressive symptoms in this population and examine whether physical activities are associated with this trajectory.
Methods
This study used a longitudinal survey design, utilizing three waves of data from the Health and Retirement Study. The respondents were adults aged 50 or older (N = 4,278) with diabetes. After conducting descriptive analyses, latent growth modeling was performed including unconditional and conditional models.
Results
The overall trajectory of depressive symptoms in adults with diabetes decreased over a 4-year period. Physical activities were significantly associated with the variance in the intercept of the trajectory (p < .05), but not associated with the variance in the slope (p > .05). Additionally, this study identified factors significantly associated with the variance in the intercept (e.g. age, gender, race, marriage, education, income, self-reported health) or the slope (e.g. race, marriage, education, self-reported health) of the depressive symptom trajectory (p < .05).
Conclusion
The findings underscore the importance of implementing targeted interventions to encourage and promote physical activities among older adults with diabetes, recognizing the potential benefits for managing their mental health.
Acknowledgments
Special thanks to Dr. Joseph Merighi for his careful review of this manuscript and helpful feedback.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.