Multimorbidity and Depressive Symptoms and their Association with Self-Reported Health and Life Satisfaction Among...

Identify the association between multimorbidity and depressive symptoms (DS) with self-reported health (SRH) and life satisfaction in a national sample of Mexican ≥ 50 years older adults. Data are drawn from the Mexican Health and Aging Study (MHAS), a cross-sectional study conducted in 2018 involving 14,230 older adults aged 50 years and older living in urban and rural areas of Mexico. Depressive symptoms were measured using the Center for Epidemiological Studies depression scale (CES-D) and life satisfaction using the Life Satisfaction Scale (LSS), examined both as a categorical and continuous variable. Logistic and Poisson regression analyses were used to assess the association adjusting for confounders. The prevalence of multimorbidity was 25.8%. Age (≥ 65 years) was significantly associated with increased odds of fair/poor SRH [OR = 1.17 (95% CI 1.09-1.27)]. Older adults with multimorbidity and high DS were more likely to present fair/poor SRH [OR = 7.83 (95% CI 6.48-9.45)]. Older adults with multimorbidity and high DS were 37% [RR = 1.37 (95% CI 1.35-1.40)] more likely to present low life satisfaction than those that did not present multimorbidity. Multimorbidity and high DS were found to be associated with fair/poor SRH and low life satisfaction. The early identification of factors related to multimorbidity, DS, and low life satisfaction are important in order to reduce possible complications and improve quality of life.