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The Impact of Health Problems on Depression and Activities in Middle-Aged and Older Adults: Age and Social Interactions as Moderators

¹ Department of Epidemiology, National Institute for Longevity Sciences, Obu Aichi, Japan.
² School of Letters, Arts, and Sciences, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan.

In this study, we compared the impact of health problems (HPs) on everyday activities and depressive symptoms between middle-aged and older adults. We also examined what type and source of social interactions moderate the noxious effects of HPs. Longitudinal analyses of data with 1,802 Japanese community-dwelling adults indicated that HPs were significantly related to (a) an increase in depressive symptoms among middle-aged adults and (b) a decline in everyday activities among older adults. The former was buffered by emotional family support, whereas the latter (b) was buffered by instrumental family support and, surprisingly, by negative interactions with family. In contrast, social interactions with other friends and acquaintances did not show any moderating effect.