Association of living arrangements with depressive symptoms among older adults in China: a cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: Depression is regarded as a major public health concern in our society. While living arrangements as a structural factor of social support may contribute to older adults’ depression. Our study aims to investigate the association between living arrangements and depressive symptoms among older adults in the whole China, and to explore whether such influences differ by genders. METHODS: Data were obtained from the 2015 China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study. The sample was comprised of 6001 individuals aged ≥60 years. Depressive symptoms were measured by the 10-item Short-Form Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression. Independent variables were divided into 4 groups, considering living with/without a spouse and living with/without a child. The multivariate logistic regression was used to estimate the relationship between living arrangements and depressive symptoms in four models. RESULTS: Compared with living only with a spouse, people living with a spouse and child, or living alone were more likely to have depressive symptoms (odds ratio = 1.23 95% CI 1.06–1.42 and 1.40 95% CI 1.03–1.92, respectively). Women were more associated with depressive symptoms (odds ratio = 2.13), but there were no significant associations between living arrangements and depressive symptoms among women. Men living with a spouse and a child had stronger positively depressive symptoms (odds ratio = 1.37). CONCLUSIONS: Older adults living alone, or living with both a child and spouse were more likely to have depressive symptoms. It is important to provide more social services for those older adult, particularly for men living with a spouse and child. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12889-019-7350-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.