Decomposing socioeconomic inequalities in depressive symptoms among the elderly in China

Abstract Background Accelerated population ageing brings about unprecedented challenges to the health system in China. This study aimed to measure the prevalence and the income-related inequality of depressive symptoms, and also identify the determinants of depressive symptom inequality among the elderly in China. Methods Data were drawn from the second wave of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS). Depressive symptoms were assessed with a 10-item Center for Epidemiologic Studies–Depression Scale (CES-D), which was preselected in CHARLS. The concentration index was used to measure the magnitude of income-related inequality in depressive symptoms. A decomposition analysis, based on the logit model, was employed to quantify the contribution of each determinant to total inequality. Results More than 32.55% of the elderly in China had depressive symptoms. Women had a higher prevalence of depressive symptoms than men. The overall concentration index of depressive symptoms was -0.0645 among the elderly, indicating that depressive symptoms are more concentrated among the elderly who lived in economically disadvantaged situations, favoring the rich. Income was found to have the largest percentage of contribution to overall inequality, followed by residents’ location and educational attainment. Conclusion The prevalence of depressive symptoms in the elderly was considerably high in China. There was also a pro-rich inequality in depressive symptoms amongst elderly Chinese. It is suggested that some form of policy and intervention strategies, such as establishing the urban-rural integrated medical insurance scheme, enhancing the medical assistance system, and promoting health education programs, is required to alleviate inequitable distribution of depressive symptoms

Decadal Sedimentation in China's Largest Freshwater Lake, Poyang Lake

Abstract Lakes, as key recorders of sedimentation regime variations, have undergone dramatic erosion/deposition worldwide in response to global warming and increasing anthropogenic interference. Poyang Lake, China's largest freshwater lake, has not escaped these variations. Herein, we show that the sedimentation in Poyang Lake has likely undergone a unique phase shift from sediment sink (annually storing 421 × 104 t) during 1960–1999 to sediment source (yearly losing 782 × 104 t) during 2000–2012, with respect to the Changjiang (Yangtze) River. In comparison with sedimentation during 1960–1999, Poyang Lake sedimentation during the period 2000–2012 is characterized by no deposition during the flood season and enhanced erosion during the dry season. Furthermore, Poyang Lake's largest delta, the Ganjiang Delta, prograded at a rate of 32.7 m/a from 1983 to 1996, which increased to 52.8 m/a from 1996 to 2005 but dropped significantly to 1.7 m/a from 2005 to 2015. A sediment core collected in the shallow‐water shoal of the central lake indicates a stable increase in sedimentation flux from 1960 to 2002, with a mean value of 0.27 g/(cm2·a), followed by a decline in sedimentation flux after 2002. Our findings show that the tributary sediment input from the lake catchment dominated the sedimentation of Poyang Lake prior to 2000, when it was significantly larger than the sediment output to the Changjiang River. However, thereafter, the contribution of tributary sediment to the output dropped by 50%, and the rest has been provided by the lake itself. Namely, channels along Poyang Lake's waterway became the additional source of the lake's sediment output in the 2000s

Additional file 1: of Decomposing socioeconomic inequalities in depressive symptoms among the elderly in China

CES-D questions, English and Mandarin. (DOCX 17 kb