PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Kwong, Elizabeth AU - Kwok, Timothy T Y AU - Sumerlin, Timothy S AU - Goggins, William B AU - Leung, Jason AU - Kim, Jean H TI - Does subjective social status predict depressive symptoms in Chinese elderly? A longitudinal study from Hong Kong AID - 10.1136/jech-2019-212451 DP - 2020 Nov 01 TA - Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health PG - 882--891 VI - 74 IP - 11 4099 - http://jech.bmj.com/content/74/11/882.short 4100 - http://jech.bmj.com/content/74/11/882.full SO - J Epidemiol Community Health2020 Nov 01; 74 AB - Background Subjective social status (SSS), one’s self-perceived social status, has been gaining interest among researchers as a risk/protective factor of many health outcomes. SSS encompasses both socio-economic factors (eg, income) and intangible aspects of status (eg, esteem from peers). This study’s main objective was to examine the association between SSS and future risk of depression in elderly Chinese.Methods Using data from the ongoing Mr/Mrs Os study, a longitudinal study of Hong Kong Chinese elderly, this study analysed baseline SSS-Hong Kong (self-perceived social status within Hong Kong) and SSS-Community (self-perceived status within one’s own social network) as predictors of Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) score at year 4 (n=3153). The models adjusted for baseline depression scores, socio-economic status indicators, demographic variables, clinical conditions and functional status variables.Results Higher depression scores at follow-up were independently associated with lower SSS-Hong Kong (standardised β-coefficient= −0.040, p=0.017), lower SSS-Community (standardised β-coefficient= −0.057, p=0.001), in addition to older age, female gender and stroke history. After stratifying by dementia status, higher baseline SSS was associated with less depressive symptoms only in the non-dementia group. In the multivariable models that included both SSS variables, only SSS-Community was significantly associated with year 4 GDS score. However, both SSS variables were independently associated with year 4 depression status in the logistic regression analysis.Conclusion In Chinese elderly, SSS captures aspects of social status that are not captured by traditional socio-economic indicators. SSS can be a useful supplementary tool for assessing future risk of developing mental health conditions.