Depressive symptom trajectories across the transition to cardiovascular disease in middle-aged and older adults: a multicohort study
Authors' conclusion
Depressive symptoms show a gradual increase before CVD diagnosis, elevate further around the time of diagnosis, and continue to worsen thereafter.
Study context
- Population
- Middle-aged and older adults in Health and Retirement Study (HRS) (2002–2018), English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) (2002–2019) and China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) (2011–2018)7,363 developed cardiovascular disease (CVD)
- Participants
- 28,704 participants
- Exposure
- Depressive symptom trajectories before and after incident CVD vs no CVD
- CVDn = 7,363
- Outcome
- Depressive symptoms (CES-D, 8-item or 10-item, standardized Z-scores), measured biennially
Methodological detailsdiscontinuous growth curve modeling, pooled by meta-analysis
- Discontinuous growth curve modeling
- Pooled by meta-analysis
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
Depressive symptoms (Z-score)
- Overall level
- pooled β 0.161 SD (95% CI 0.086–0.236)
- Increase around time of diagnosis
- pooled β 0.089 SD (95% CI 0.060–0.118)
- Slope in years preceding CVD onset
- pooled β 0.007 SD/year (95% CI 0.004–0.010)
- Slope following diagnosis
- pooled β 0.009 SD/year (95% CI 0.004–0.013)
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Original publication
Depressive symptom trajectories across the transition to cardiovascular disease in middle-aged and older adults: a multicohort study. Eur J Prev Cardiol. Published 4 September 2026. doi:10.
Summarised from the published abstract; every number is checked against it