Background: Stronger associations between modifiable risk factors and cognitive function have been found in younger than older adults. This age pattern may be subject to mortality selection and non-ignorable missingness caused by dropouts due to death, but this remains unclear.
Methods: Longitudinal data from 9,562 adults aged 50 and older from Waves 1-4 (2011-2018) of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study were used.
Background: Although intrinsic capacity (IC) has been constructed in older populations, whether IC retains the same structure over time has not been formally examined, nor have the factors associated with the changes in IC over time been thoroughly investigated. This study aimed to establish that the structure of IC remains unchanged over time by testing its longitudinal measurement invariance and to investigate factors that influence the longitudinal change of IC over time.
Methods: Data came from 7,271 participants aged 60 and older from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study in 2011 (Wave 1) and 2015 (Wave 3).
Background: The global aging phenomenon has raised concerns about the cognitive abilities of older individuals. This study aimed to explore the relationship between social participation, depressive symptoms, and cognitive function among middle-aged and older adults.
Methods: This study utilized data from the China Longitudinal Study of Health and Retirement (CHARLS) from wave 1 to wave 4.
Background And Objectives: Cross-national research on cognitive aging inequality has largely concentrated on Western countries. It is unclear whether socioeconomic position (SEP) has similar effects on cognitive decline in emerging economies. We compared the association between life course SEP and cognitive function trajectories between China and England, the largest nation under state socialism and one of the oldest capitalist countries.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Epidemiol Community Health
September 2023
Background: Social support is associated with cognitive function at an older age, but how distinct dimensions of social support affect trajectories of cognitive decline in older Chinese adults remains unclear.
Methods: Using longitudinal data (waves 1-4) from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study, 7-year trajectories of cognitive decline by various social support markers, including family support, financial support, public support and perceived support, were estimated using latent growth curve modelling for adults aged 60 and over (N=6795).
Results: After adjusting for baseline sociodemographics, behaviours, body mass index and health conditions, all social support markers were associated with baseline cognitive function, except for living with spouse.
Background: Stroke incidence has continued to increase recently in most countries. The roles of individual-level income on the incidence of overall stroke and its subtypes are still unknown, especially in low- and middle-income countries and the cross-national evidence is also limited. We explored the association between individual-level income and stroke incidence in Finland and China.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Psychological conditions have been found to be associated with an increased risk of incident benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV). However, much less is known on whether and how psychological conditions such as anxiety, insomnia and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) affect the recurrence of BPPV.
Methods: A retrospective cohort study of 2,612 outpatients and inpatients diagnosed with BPPV between September 2012 and August 2020.
Background: The possible mediating role of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in the relationship between alcohol use disorders (AUD) and the risk of early-onset (
Methods: Using linked Finnish national register data, a population-based cohort study of 262,703 dementia-free Finnish men and women aged 40 + at baseline (December 31, 1999) was established. AUD and CVD in 1988-2014, and incident dementia in 2000-2014 were identified from Finnish Hospital Discharge Register and/or Drug Reimbursement Register.
Background: It remains unclear how pre-existing depression, anxiety, and diabetes of different durations are associated with the risk of pancreatic cancer, its clinical characteristics, treatment modalities, and subsequent survival.
Methods: From a register-based random sample of Finns residing in Finland at the end of the period 1987-2007, 6492 patients diagnosed with primary pancreatic cancer in 2000-2014, and 32 460 controls matched for birth cohort and sex, were identified. Pre-existing depression, anxiety, and diabetes were ascertained from the records of prescribed medication purchases.
Background: Cognitive reserve (CR) could partly explain the individual heterogeneity in cognitive decline. No study measured CR from a life course perspective and investigated the association between CR and trajectories of cognitive decline in older Chinese adults.
Methods: Data of 6795 Chinese adults aged 60+ from China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study were used.
J Epidemiol Community Health
November 2021
Background: There is mixed evidence on the association between living arrangements and mid-late life cognition, which may be due to distinct familial arrangements and preferences between populations. To address such heterogeneity, we assessed these associations in China and England.
Methods: Four-year trajectories of episodic memory scores (0-20, word recall test) by living arrangements (living with partner only, living with partner and children/grandchildren, living with no partner but with children/grandchildren, and living alone) were estimated using latent growth curve modelling for men and women aged 50+ from China (n=12 801) and England (n=10 964).
J Epidemiol Community Health
December 2020
Background: The association between childhood adversity and an individual's health in later life has been extensively studied in Western societies; however, little is known about this association for the development of multimorbidity in China.
Methods: Three waves (2011-2012, 2013 and 2015) of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study were used for adults aged 45-101 years. Multimorbidity was assessed by the summed scores of self-reported physician diagnoses of 14 chronic diseases.
The effectiveness of control measures to contain coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Wanzhou, China was assessed. Epidemiological data were analyzed for 183 confirmed COVID-19 cases and their close contacts from five generations of transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 throughout the entire COVID-19 outbreak in Wanzhou. Approximately 67.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: So far, there have been no published population studies on the relationship between a COVID-19 infection and public risk perception, information source, knowledge, attitude, and behaviors during the COVID-19 outbreak in China.
Objective: This study aims to understand the relationships between COVID-19 infection; four personal nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs; handwashing, proper coughing habits, social distancing, and mask wearing); and public risk perception, knowledge, attitude, and other social demographic variables.
Methods: An online survey of 8158 Chinese adults between February 22 and March 5, 2020, was conducted.
Background: While living alone predicts depression in diverse ageing populations, the impact of multigenerational living is unclear. This study compared mid-late life depressive symptoms by living arrangements between societies with distinct kinship ties.
Methods: Repeated data on depressive symptoms and living arrangements over 4 years from 16,229 Chinese (age≥45) and 10,403 English adults (age≥50) were analyzed using multilevel mixed-effects logistic regression.
Background: Previous research has shown that certain living arrangements, such as living alone, are associated with worse health at older ages. We assessed the association between living arrangements and hospital care use among middle-aged and older adults, and investigated to what extent observed and unobserved individual characteristics explain this association.
Methods: Longitudinal Finnish registry data for men and women aged 50-89 years were used for the period 1987-2007.
Background: Despite the growing prevalence of depression in the Chinese elderly, there is conflicting evidence of life course socioeconomic position (SEP) and depression onset in China, and whether this association is akin to that observed in Western societies. We compared incident risk of mid-late life depression by childhood and adulthood SEP in China and England, a country where mental health inequality is firmly established.
Methods: Depression-free participants from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (N=8508) and the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (N=6184) were studied over 4 years.
Background: No consensus has been reached on whether depression decreases or increases with age in later life. Majority of the evidence comes from Western societies, while little is known about this relationship and its rural-urban disparities in the Chinese context.
Methods: Three waves of data from 15,501 Chinese adults aged 45-85 years from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study, Chinese sister study of Health and Retirement Study, were used.
A number of studies have established the link between childhood adversity (CA) and depression across the life span. This association can be culturally specific, and it remains unclear whether and how different aspects of CA affect depressive symptoms in later life in non-Western societies. Data were from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study in 2011, 2013, 2014 (Life Event History survey) and 2015 (N = 13,710).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Epidemiol Community Health
November 2018
Background: Unhealthy diet may increase the risk of impaired physical functioning in older age. Although poor diet and limited physical functioning both seem to be particularly common in Eastern Europe, no previous study has assessed the relationship between these two factors in this region. The current analysis examined the association between overall diet quality and physical functioning in Eastern European populations.
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