Prevalence of depression among older adults living in care homes in China: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Objectives: Despite the large number of older adults living in care homes in China, the reported preva-lence of depression in such settings has varied greatly, while its pooled overall prevalence has remained unknown. In response, our systematic review and meta-analysis were designed to provide accurate, com-prehensive evidence of the prevalence of geriatric depression in care homes in China.Methods: Literature searches were conducted independently by two investigators in English-and Chinese-language databases from database inception through January 2020. The prevalence of depressive symp-toms in late life was analyzed with a random effects model.Results: In 69 studies addressing older adults living in care homes in China, the pooled overall prevalence of depressive symptoms was 36.8% (95% CI, 32.7%-41.1%). Respective estimates for mild and moderate-to-severe depressive symptoms were 29.1% (95% CI, 25.2%-32.7%) and 9.1% (95% CI, 7.5%-11.0%). Subgroup analyses revealed significant differences in the prevalence of late-life depression in care homes according to the type of care home, the individual's socioeconomic status, and the measurement instrument(s) used. Meta-regression analysis indicated that the prevalence of late-life depression among older adults living in care homes generally rose from 1991 to 2019.Conclusions: Given the high prevalence of geriatric depression in China's care homes, future studies should examine its risk and protective factors in those settings. (c) 2021 Published by Elsevier Ltd.