Institute of Psychology
Chinese Academy of Sciences

Mental Health of Chinese Elderlyand Cultural Specific Approaches

Buxin Han, PhD
Key Lab of Mental Health，Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences

hanbx@psych.ac.cn

Outline• Mental health of Chinese– Life span perspective• Suicide rate, Mental health– Longitudinal perspective• Munsh, GDS, CES-D• Religion in serving a cultural society• Conclusion

Rates of suicide in China (1995-99)(Phillips, Li, & Zhang, 2002)

陈祉妍、吴振云、方格等，2008

The distribution of aging adults in China

2.93 %

13.24

8.87%
65 years old and above≧60 years old

86.76

1.91 %
10.33

89.67

< 60 years old

2010

6.96%
65 years old and above≧60 years old< 60 years old

2000
Communiqué of the National Bureau of Statistics of People’s Republic of China
on Major Figures of the 2010 Population Census [1] (No. 1)

The social economic status of urban elderly in recent years

80.0%
70.0%
60.0%
50.0%
2000

40.0%

2006
30.0%
20.0%
10.0%
0.0%
illiteratejuniormedical insurance coverage

National follow-up investigation (2000-2006), China Research Center on Aging

MethodsCross‐Temporal Meta‐analysis• explore the nature of change within a set ofvariables over a period of time and the possible
socioeconomic factors• 1. select studies using the same measurements• 2. studies conducted in the same year are merged• 3. correlation between year and the pooled mean values•(Twenge, 2000, 2001a, 2001b; Twenge & Campbell, 2001)

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Number of references
CES-D

GDS

MUNSH

1980-1997

--

5

1998

42-

1999

1

2

12000

1232001

11-

2002

2

1120032222004

36420052622006

19620072742008

1942009-422010---2011---“-” no publication

Reference retrieval

ScalesData collection

References

Participants

MUNSH

1992-2009

3517230

CES-D

1998-2008

2021363

GDS

1998-2009

5136625

MUNSH• No significant correlation between the year andmean weighted scores from studies in each year
(r = ‐0.183，p>0.05)
45
40
3530
25
20
15
10501990

1995

2000

2005

2010

US Personal Income and Happiness,1957–2005 (Nelson, 2009)

CES‐D• Prevalence change (r=0.59, p<0.001)

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GDS• Prevalence change (r=0.729, p=0.007)
45.00
40.00

Prevalence (%)

35.00
30.00
25.00
20.00
15.00
10.00
5.00
0.00

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

Year

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13IAPR 2013,LausanneTable 3 Relationship between depression prevalence and urbanization
indicators with data two years ago

Factorvariables

Population andEconomic(1) number of hospitals and health centers’ beds per1000 population(2) number of practicing physicians per 1000 population

Industrial and living
environment(3) GDP per capita(4) urban percentage of total population(6) number of ordinary primary and secondary school
students per hundred thousand per capita(5) consumption level(7) average number of persons per household(8) illiterate proportion of the population over 15 years
old(1) Secondary industry GDP(2) Tertiary industry GDP(3) number of urban basic retirement pension(4) household garbage disposal capacity(5) number of urban community service facilities

Depression
prevalence
0.818**-0.2120.822**
0.748**-0.672*0.789**-0.793**-0.5640.803**
0.837**
0.846**
0.586*-0.142

Body, mind, and natureTaoism -Dao• History• Doctrine• Social imFengyi WANG (1864-1937) -Emotional Therapy• Be gratitude- Positive emotion (Yang)- Open the door of Heaven• Repent- Negative emotion (Yin)- Close the door of HellTai Chi Chuan (TCC)• All the studies, both of rapid deterioration of health and of
successful active aging, can be summarized in a single“prescription”: “Use it, or lose it.”(Jenkins, 2003)• Just participating physical exercises doesn’t predict health,but engaging in a pleasant activity and carrying on does (Martha &Huang, 2012).
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Taichi-induced improvements (Wei et al, 2013)• Psychological and physiological wellbeing• Possible links to brain structure of
Taichi practice.

Conclusion
SWB of elder Chinese are stable in past 15 years,
In spite of the increasing negative affectionand experience in the period.
Approaches based on Chinese Taoism philosophy
Could be of help.

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