Association between eating alone and depressive symptom in elders: a cross-sectional study

BMC Geriatrics

Table 1 Characteristics of study participants

Characteristics		N	%	Depressive symptom (%)	P^*
Gender	Male	4015	50.4	6.7	<0.001
	Female	3953	49.6	10.8
Age	60−	2927	36.7	7.8	<0.001
	65−	2067	25.9	7.6
	70−	1280	16.1	9.5
	75−	947	11.9	11.2
	80+	747	9.4	11.0
Ethnicity	Han ethnicity	7716	96.9	8.7	0.711
	Minorities	245	3.1	9.4
Education	Illiteracy	3819	48.0	9.7	0.017
	Primary school	3539	44.4	7.9
	Middle school or Higher	605	7.6	7.4
Perception of	Rich	816	10.3	2.8	<0.001
economic status	Moderate	6274	78.8	7.9
	Poor	869	10.9	20.3
Employment status	Working	3199	40.3	7.4	<0.001
	Retired	4278	53.8	9.9
	Never work	469	5.9	6.8
Marriage	Single	118	1.5	13.6	<0.001
	Married	6167	78.1	7.9
	Widowed/divorced	1610	20.4	11.4
Having a child	Yes	7787	97.8	8.6	0.010
	No	177	2.2	14.1
Smoking	Currently yes	1814	22.8	6.1	<0.001
	Quitted	800	10.0	9.1
	Never	5353	67.2	9.6
Drinking	Currently yes	2135	26.8	5.9	<0.001
	Quitted	703	8.8	11.4
	Never	5129	64.4	9.6
Physical activity	Yes	1553	19.5	12.4	<0.001
	No	6409	80.5	7.9
Underlying conditions	Yes	4045	50.8	10.2	<0.001
	No	3923	49.2	7.2
Limitation in activity	Yes	203	2.6	29.1	<0.001
of daily living	No	7731	97.4	8.2
Eating arrangement	With 4 persons or more	1382	17.3	4.5	<0.001
	With 3 persons	748	9.4	7.8
	With 2 persons	758	9.5	6.7
	With 1 person	3718	46.7	9.4
	Eating alone	1362	17.1	12.9
Living alone	Living alone	1152	14.5	12.2	<0.001
	Not alone	6807	85.5	8.1

^*Chi-square tests for trend were used to examine the association of depressive symptom with age and eating arrangement, respectively. Chi-square tests were used to examine the association between depressive symptom and each of the rest variables

ISSN: 1471-2318