title: Depressive symptoms and health problems among Chinese immigrant elders in the US and Chinese elders in China.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Researchers speculate that depression tends to be more prevalent among immigrant elders due to their lack of resources, acculturation stress, language problems, and social isolation. However, other characteristics of elderly immigrants, such as the healthy immigrant effect, may counteract these potential risk factors. This study examined whether depressive symptoms differed between Chinese immigrant elders and their counterparts in China and whether health conditions were similarly associated with depressive symptoms in these two samples.
  
  
  METHODS
  Depression and health information was collected from 177 Chinese immigrant elders in Boston, the US in 2000 and from 428 education and gender-matched elders in Shanghai, China in 2003.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Chinese immigrants had a significantly lower score on the modified Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) and its subscales: somatic symptoms and depressive affect. The association remained for the subscale depressive affect in multivariate analyses. Arthritis and back or neck problems were associated with a higher level of depressive symptoms among Chinese immigrants, while problems in walking were associated with depression among their counterparts in China. Pain was an underlying contributor to the association between depression and these health problems in both the groups.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study suggests that Chinese immigrant elders might be more resilient than their counterparts despite many challenges they face after moving abroad. With the growing number of older Chinese immigrants in the US, a better understanding of depressive symptoms is essential to provide culturally competent services to better serve this population.
authors.affiliation: University of North Carolina at Greensboro, USA. b_wu@uncg.edu
authors.forename: Bei
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Iris
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Chi
authors.forename: Brenda L
authors.initials: BL
authors.lastname: Plassman
authors.forename: Man
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Guo
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000175:diagnosis; D001900:Boston; D002681:China / Q000208:ethnology; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology*; D054242:Emigrants and Immigrants / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000295:instrumentation*; D014741:Video Recording