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Association of chronic diseases with depressive symptom trajectories in postmenopausal women: a population-based cohort study

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: Background Postmenopausal women are particularly susceptible to depressive symptoms, yet the longitudinal impact of chronic diseases on their depressive symptom trajectories remains poorly understood. Methods We conducted a longitudinal study using data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study, including postmenopausal women aged ≥ 45 years with complete follow-up from 2011 to 2020. Group-based trajectory modeling identified distinct depressive symptom trajectories. Inverse probability of treatment weighting adjusted multivariable logistic regression was applied to estimate the associations between chronic diseases and depressive symptom trajectory groups. Mediation analyses were conducted to examine whether sleep duration and cognitive function mediated the association between chronic diseases and depressive symptoms. Results Four trajectories of depressive symptoms were identified: no symptoms (62.2%), increasing symptoms (19.7%), remitting symptoms (10.0%), and persistently severe symptoms (8.2%). Chronic diseases showed association with membership in adverse depressive trajectories, specifically ≥ 3 diseases for persistently severe symptoms (OR = 5.20, 95% CI : 3.96–6.83). Stroke, kidney disease, and arthritis/rheumatism were identified as strong risk factors for the persistently severe depressive symptom trajectory. Additionally, elevated odds of belonging to adverse depressive trajectories were observed in women with lower education, rural residence, single status, and a history of premature menopause. In addition, Sleep duration (ES = 0.209, p <.001) and cognitive function (ES = 0.097, p <.001) mediated the relationship between chronic diseases and depressive symptoms. Conclusions The long-term trajectory of depressive symptoms in Chinese postmenopausal women is strongly shaped by chronic disease burden. These findings highlight the need for an integrated multidisciplinary treatment model for postmenopausal women.

Source: BMC Psychiatry

DOI: 10.1186/s12888-026-08799-z

Authors: Mengna Shou, Zheng Liu, Mengfei Ye, Junjiang Wu, Zimu Fu

Institutions: Shaoxing University, Shaoxing City Women and Children Hospital

Language: English

Topic: Menopause: Health Impacts and Treatments

Subfield: Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism

Field: Medicine

Domain: Health Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $3,290