Basic activities of daily living symptoms as central and bridging symptoms in the networks of functional and psychological disorders among older adults with different chronic disease patterns

OBJECTIVE: To examine chronic disease patterns and analyze the interrelations among Basic Activities of Daily Living, Instrumental Activities of Daily Living, anxiety, and depression in older adults. METHODS: A total of 3,454 participants diagnosed with at least one chronic disease were included. Latent class analysis and network analysis were employed to analyze the data. RESULTS: Four chronic disease patterns were identified: "Cardiopulmonary Health with Few Comorbidities," "Cardiovascular with Few Comorbidities," "Cardiovascular with Multiple Comorbidities," and "Respiratory with Few Comorbidities". "Indoor transferring" was identified as a central symptom, while "bathing" as a bridging one across the four chronic disease pattern networks. CONCLUSION: Basic Activities of Daily Living symptoms emerged as central and bridging symptoms within the networks of functional and psychological disorders across diverse chronic disease patterns. Future research should further investigate interventions targeting these symptoms to assess their potential for enhancing overall network health among older adults.