JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Active activity participation was an important mean to handle depression and promote active aging, but the impact of changes in activity participation on the developmental trajectory of depression had not been fully studied.

Objective:

The goal of the research was to explore the association of activity participation with the trajectory of depression in later life.

Methods:

This study used data from China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study across 7 years and includes a total of 4818 middle-aged and older people (≥45 years old). A latent growth curve model and a cross-lag model were used to assess the effect of changes in activity participation on depression trajectories in later life and the main lag relationship between activity participation and depression.

Results:

Our findings revealed that activity participation could relate to depression. Physical activity participation predicted initial depression (β = -0.631, p< 0.001 ) and its trajectory (β= 0.461, p< 0.001).However social leisure activity participation predicted initial depression (β = -0.223，p<0.01) but didn’t predicted its trajectory (β=0.067，p=0.159) .Finally, cross-lagged regression analysis further demonstrated the predictive effect of activity participation on depression (Wave I to Wave II: β = -0.125, p < 0.001; Wave II to Wave III: β = -0.216, p < 0.001; Wave III to Wave IV: β = -0.233 p<0.001).

Conclusions:

Activity participation was associated with lower depression and larger subsequent decline during follow-up period. The government should encourage middle-aged and older people to participate in various activities to effectively prevent the aggravation of depression, which also has positive significance for active aging.