The effect of community environment on the trajectory of depressive symptoms and cohort differences among middle-aged and older Chinese adults

Background Urbanization has changed the living environment of middle-aged and older Chinese adults, but it also brings certain mental pressure to them. Few studies have explored the effect of community environment on the development trajectory and the cohort differences of depressive symptoms in Chinese individuals.Methods Based on the longitudinal data of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) from 2011 to 2020, using three-level hierarchical linear growth model, this study examined the effect of community environment on the trajectory of depressive symptoms and cohort differences among middle-aged and older Chinese adults in five cohorts from 1920 to 1929, 1930-1939, 1940-1949, 1950-1959, and 1960-1966.Results The results of this study showed that middle-aged and older adult individuals who lived in neighborhoods with better community physical and social environments had a protective effect on depressive symptoms. There was a cohort difference in the development of depressive symptoms among middle-aged and older Chinese adults. The baseline depressive symptoms in the later birth cohorts were higher than those in the earliest cohort, and the development rate were also significantly higher. The role of community environment in the development rate of depressive symptoms among middle-aged and older adult individuals varied across the cohort. A better community social environment had a more significant moderating effect on the development rate of depressive symptoms in the early birth cohort (1930-1939), and a better physical environment had a more significant moderating effect on the development rate of depressive symptoms in the 1940-1949 cohort.Conclusion Under the strategic background of healthy aging in China, the construction and improvement of community environment should become an important part of coping with the realistic challenges of the aging population, such as the expanding scale of depressed population among the middle-aged and older adult individual.