OCCUPATION AND HEALTH ›› 2026, Vol. 42 ›› Issue (9): 1238-1243.

• Treatise • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Mediating effects of depressive symptoms between sedentary behavior and cognitive frailty in community-dwelling older adults

MA Xue1, HAN Xiaoyun2(), SHI Xunyu2, HUANG Yuwen1, XIONG Yaling1   

  1. 1. Suzhou Medical College,Soochow University,Suzhou,Jiangsu 215006,China
    2. Third Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Changzhou,Jiangsu 213000,China
  • Received:2025-08-05 Revised:2025-08-25 Online:2026-05-01 Published:2026-05-22
  • Contact: HAN Xiaoyun,E-mail:hxy1427@qq.com

Abstract:

Objective To explore the mediating role of depressive symptoms between sedentary behavior and cognitive frailty in community-dwelling older adults,providing insights and evidence for slowing the onset and progression of cognitive frailty and developing corresponding intervention measures. Methods A convenience sampling method was used to select 504 cases of older adults living in two communities in Changzhou City from February to July 2023 as the study subjects. The general information questionnaire,international physical activity questionnaire-short,5-itom geriatric depression scale,frailty phenotype and Montreal cognitive assessment scale were used to conduct the investigation. The multivariate Logistic regression and Z-test were used to investigate whether the mediating effect of depressive symptoms between sedentary behavior and cognitive frailty in older adults was significant or not. The pathways between sedentary behavior,depressive symptoms and cognitive frailty,and the 95%CI for the effect values of each pathway were investigated using AMOS 26.0 software. Results The sedentary behavior,depressive symptoms, and cognitive frailty were present in 282(56.0%),156(31.0%),and 89(17.7%) of the 504 older adults,respectively. The sedentary behavior(OR=4.464,95%CI:1.822-10.940) and depressive symptoms(OR=6.497,95%CI:2.871-14.700) were significantly associated with the occurrence of cognitive frailty among community-dwelling older adults. The mediating effect of depressive symptoms between sedentary behavior and cognitive frailty was significant(Z=2.413,P<0.05),with an effect value of 0.082(P<0.05) and an effect percentage of 24.19%. Conclusions The depressive symptoms play a partially mediating role in the relationship between sedentary behavior and cognitive frailty in community-dwelling older adults. It is suggested that community workers and healthcare professionals should not only intervene in the sedentary lifestyle of older adults,but also focus on screening for depressive symptoms in sedentary older adults,to maximize the prevention and slowing of the incidence and progression of cognitive frailty.

Key words: Older adults, Sedentary behavior, Depressive symptoms, Cognitive frailty, Path analysis, Mediating effect

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