Patterns of productive activity engagement as a longitudinal predictor of depressive symptoms among older adults in urban China

ABSTRACT

Objectives: Using two waves of panel data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study, this study prospectively assessed whether four distinct patterns of productive activity engagement would predict depressive symptoms among older adults in urban China two years later.

Methods: A sample of urban residents aged 60 or above at Wave 1 and who were interviewed in both waves (N = 2398) was used. Latent class analysis (LCA) was conducted to identify distinct patterns of productive activity engagement that occurred within the Wave 1 data. Next, the generalized estimating equations were used to assess whether identified patterns predicted the levels of depressive symptoms measured at Wave 2.

Results: Our use of LCA confirmed the existence of four distinct patterns of productive activity engagement among the study sample: Informal Helper/Carer, Working–Caring Engager, Civic Contributor, and Low/Spousal Carer. All of these three patterns exhibited significantly lower levels of depressive symptoms than that of Low/Spousal Carer two years later.

Conclusions: Our use of individual-based categorization of productive engagement better captured the reality of older adults performing various productive activities than summative scales of productive activities did and, therefore, provided a more valid clarification of differential well-being outcomes among older adults.

KEYWORDS:

• Productive engagement
• depressive symptoms
• latent class analysis
• Chinese urban older adults

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.