ArticleBMC psychiatry2026
Bidirectional longitudinal associations between social activity and depressive symptoms among Chinese older adults with multimorbidity: the moderating role of subjective life expectancy.
Article in BMC psychiatry, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
10 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundSocial activity in older adults is often correlated with their depressive symptoms, and this correlation is stronger in older adults with multimorbidity than in those without. However, few studies have analyzed this longitudinal association over time. This study aimed to examine the bidirectional longitudinal associations between social activity and depressive symptoms in older adults with multimorbidity. Additionally, we examined subjective life expectancy's (SLE) moderating association in this bidirectional longitudinal association.
methodsData were obtained from Waves 3 and 4 survey of 1435 older adults with multimorbidity (≥ 60 years) enrolled in the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study. We used cross-lagged panel models and grouped regression models to analyze the bidirectional longitudinal association between social activity and depressive symptoms, as well as the moderating association of subjective life expectancy, among Chinese older adults with multimorbidity.
resultsT1 social activity was significantly negatively associated with T2 depressive symptoms (β=-0.054, P < 0.050), and T1 depressive symptoms were significantly negatively associated with T2 social activity (β=-0.112, P < 0.010). SLE significantly moderated the association between T1 social activity and T2 depressive symptoms. Further, among participants with high SLE, the absolute value of the regression coefficient for the negative association of T1 social activity with T2 depressive symptoms (β=-0.134, P < 0.010) was larger than that for the association of T1 depressive symptoms with T2 social activity (β=-0.114, P < 0.050), indicating a more pronounced negative association for the former. All reported standardized coefficients were relatively modest; nevertheless, these statistically significant longitudinal associations are clinically and public health-relevant in this high-risk cohort of older adults with multimorbidity, who are disproportionately vulnerable to depressive symptom progression and social disengagement.
conclusionReciprocal longitudinal associations between social activity and depressive symptoms were observed among Chinese older adults with multimorbidity, with the negative longitudinal association from baseline depressive symptoms to subsequent social activity being larger in magnitude than the reverse association. Additionally, subjective life expectancy (SLE) showed a significant moderating effect on the association from baseline social activity to subsequent depressive symptoms.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.