Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between functional limitations and depressive symptoms in older Chinese. Adults aged 60 or older were selected from the 2015 China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study. Functional limitations were measured in 4 domains: mobility (6 items), upper extremity (3 items), activities of daily living (ADL, 5 items), and instrumental activities of daily living (IADL, 6 items). Depressive symptoms were measured by the 10-item CES-D. OLS hierarchical multiple regression was used to predict depressive symptoms in older Chinese. Age, gender, marital status and geographic areas (urban-rural) were entered in step 1. Functional limitations were added in step 2. The sample size was 4300. The average age was 68.56 (SD = 6.50), 55.7% were female, 20.2% were unmarried, and 69.9% lived in rural areas. The average CES-D score was 19.78 (SD = 6.90). Adding functional limitations significantly improved prediction for depressive symptoms (ΔR2 =.14, p < .001). The final model had F = 128.02 (p < .001), R2 = .19. All domains of functional limitations, mobility (b = .36, p < .001), upper extremity (b = .35, p < .001), ADL (b = .23, p = .003), and IADL (b = .26, p < .001) were significant predictors. Also, being younger-old, being female, being unmarried, and living in rural areas predicted more depressive symptoms. Given the rapidly increasing aging population in China, there is a need to develop effective interventions aimed at improving functional status in older Chinese, especially for more vulnerable groups.