Latent profile analysis of depressive symptoms in older patients with chronic diseases and their relationship with social support study

Older people constitute a significant group of chronic disease patients. Chronic diseases place a significant financial burden on patients and cause both material and psychological stress. This stress tends to induce frequent depressive moods, which negatively affect the patient's physical and mental health. Although there is a large number of studies that have explored depressive problems, chronic illness, and social support among older people, there is relatively little research related to the heterogeneity of depressive symptoms among older people with chronic disease. In addition, the relationship between different categories of depressive symptoms and social support is unclear. The purpose of this research was to explore the potential categories of depressive symptoms and their relationship with social support in older patients with chronic diseases. We used data from the 2020 China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) to answer this question. We applied latent profile analysis methods to explore the potential categories of depressive symptoms in older patients with chronic diseases and to analyze the relationship between different depressive symptom categories and social support. The results demonstrate that depressive symptoms in older adults with chronic diseases can be categorized into four distinct subgroups: mild depression - persistent low mood with diminished hopefulness type (57.58%), moderate depression - balanced type(7.95%), major depression - high fearfulness type (15.71%), and major depression - low fearfulness type (18.76%). Furthermore, the stress-buffering effect of social support on adverse psychological outcomes demonstrates significant subtype-specific variations among these clinical subgroups.