Health lifestyle and mental health status among older adults: A latent class analysis

Problem considered: While individual healthy behaviors are known to affect health status in later life, evidence on relationship between health lifestyle behaviors and mental health among older adults remains limited. This study examined the association between health lifestyle patterns and mental health among older adults in developing countries. Methods: This study analyzed cross-sectional data from 7897 participants aged ≥60 years in the WHO Study on Global Ageing and Adult Health (SAGE). Six lifestyle behaviors (including smoking, alcohol consumption, physical activity, sedentary behavior, sleep, and diet) were examined using Latent Class Analysis (LCA) to identify health lifestyle patterns and their associations with cognitive function, perceived stress, and depression. Results: Four lifestyle patterns were identified: healthy lifestyle group (28.0%), poor sleep group (30.2%), smoking and drinking group (26.8%), and high-risk group (14.9%). Compared with other groups, the healthy lifestyle group showed better cognitive function, lower perceived stress, and a lower likelihood of depression, whereas the high-risk group exhibited the poorest mental health outcomes. Conclusion: This study suggests that adhering to a healthy lifestyle may improve the psychological health of older adults at risk, such as their cognition, stress and depression. It recommends interventions such as quitting smoking, limiting drinking, and reducing sedentary behavior, increasing physical activity and sleep time, as well as maintaining a balanced diet to support overall health in older populations.