Citation

Xue K, Nie Y, Wang Y, Hu Z. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022; 19(18): e11780.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, MDPI: Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute)

DOI

10.3390/ijerph191811780

PMID

36142053

Abstract

Previous studies on the number of births and the health of the elderly have been highly focused on physical health and used samples from developed countries. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the effect of the lifetime number of births on depression in Chinese older adults. We used panel data for men and women aged 50 and over from the 2013-2018 China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study. Depressive symptoms were assessed through a short form of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale. We found that depression levels in women were significantly higher than in men, with a mean difference of 2.44 (p < 0.001). The model estimation results indicated that the number of births affected depression in older adults, and its increase could exacerbate depression in older adults. The number of births significantly impacted depression among the elderly aged 50-69. Furthermore, there was a negative relationship between the proportion of sons and older adults' depression, which was significant in older males; the number of abortions may exacerbate depression in older adults, especially in females.

Language: en

Keywords

gender differences; China; depressive symptoms; abortions; fertility behavior