The temporal relationship between depressive symptoms and self-rated health across adulthood

Abstract

Objective: Depressive symptoms have been found to relate to diminished self-rated health (SRH), which is a reliable index of general health. Despite such associations, there is limited research examining the bidirectional temporal relationship between these variables. The current study is the first to investigate the longitudinal relationship between depressive symptoms and SRH utilizing a cross-lagged panel analysis in a sample that spans adulthood (ages 18–93).

Method: Data from the Virginia Cognitive Aging Project were used to examine the temporal relationship between depressive symptoms and SRH in a cross-lagged panel analysis using structural equation modeling.

Results: A bidirectional temporal relationship, which was not moderated by age, was established between depressive symptoms and SRH.

Conclusion: This article is the first to demonstrate that depressive symptoms and SRH influence each other reciprocally over time across adulthood, even after controlling for relevant variables. Considering the ubiquity and ramifications of depressive symptoms among American adults, these results highlight the importance of investigating mechanisms that could elucidate the link between the variables in question.

Keywords:

• Cross-lagged panel analysis
• depressive symptoms
• self-rated health
• Virginia Cognitive Aging Project

Acknowledgements

We thank Tim Salthouse for providing us with these data. We thank members of the Fordham Memory & Aging Lab for their edits and feedback.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest.

Additional information

Funding

The collection of the data in this project was supported by a National Institute on Aging Grant, R01AG024270, to Timothy A. Salthouse.