Multimorbidity patterns, social networks, and depression among chinese older women

Multimorbidity refers to an individual has two or more chronic diseases at the same time. Studies on the associations between multimorbidity patterns and depression among Chinese older women are scarce. This study investigated 3455 Chinese women (aged 60 and above) to identify their multimorbidity patterns and the relationships between multimorbidity patterns, social networks, and depression. Based on the results of latent class analysis, the multimorbidity patterns of Chinese women can be divided into four classes: relatively healthy (44.78%), degenerative diseases (35.28%), high multisystem morbidity (5.85%), and metabolic diseases (14.10%). Linear regression found that degenerative diseases and high multisystem morbidity positively predicted depression. Through the Process plug-in in SPSS software, we found family network partially mediated the relationship between high multisystem morbidity and depression, performing a suppressing effect. This is the first study that investigated multimorbidity patterns among Chinese women. Given the influence of different multimorbidity patterns on older women’s depression, specific measures should be implemented by community healthcare staff and family members for older women with different characteristics.