The mediating effect of life satisfaction between daily living abilities and depressive symptoms in the Chinese older people: evidence from CHARLS 2020

Background: Depressive symptoms represent a significant public health challenge, impacting the mental well-being of older adults. Despite this, the understanding of how activities of daily living (ADL) abilities correlate with life satisfaction and depressive symptoms among older Chinese adults remains limited. Aims: This study aims to investigate the relationship between ADL and depressive symptoms in older people Chinese individuals, with a specific focus on examining the mediating role of life satisfaction within this context. Methods: The study utilized data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) collected in 2020. A cohort of 8,343 individuals aged 60 years and above was included. The analysis was conducted using STATA 17.0 and SPSS 26.0, employing descriptive statistics, chi-square tests, Pearson correlations, and mediation analysis using the percentile Bootstrap method with 5,000 resamples to explore the interrelations among ADL, life satisfaction, and depressive symptoms. Results: ADL is positively correlated with life satisfaction (r = 0.129, p < 0.01) and negatively correlated with depressive symptoms (r = -0.313, p < 0.01). Additionally, life satisfaction and depressive symptoms are negatively correlated with each other (r = -0.360, p < 0.01). In the model of the mediating effect, ADL directly, significantly and negatively predicts depressive symptoms in the Chinese older people (beta = -0.193, t = -17.827, p < 0.001). After incorporating life satisfaction into the regression equation, the direct predictive effect of ADL on depressive symptoms remains significant (beta = -0.177, t = -17.099, p < 0.001); furthermore, ADL has a significant positive predictive effect on life satisfaction (beta = 0.007, t = 4.959, p < 0.001) and life satisfaction significantly negatively predicts depressive symptoms (beta = -2.235, t = -27.799, p < 0.001). Furthermore, the direct effect of ADL on depressive symptoms (-0.177) and its mediating effect (-0.016) account for 91.71% and 8.29% of the total effect (-0.193), respectively. Conclusion: ADL is inversely associated with the risk of depressive symptoms among older people Chinese individuals, with life satisfaction serving as a significant mediator in this relationship. Interventions aimed at improving life satisfaction in older people individuals with ADL impairments may effectively reduce or prevent the onset of depressive symptoms.