Associations of Depression and Symptomatic Knee Osteoarthritis with Cognitive Function Among Middle-Aged and Older Adults: Evidence from CHARLS in China

This study investigated the separate and joint relationships of depression and symptomatic knee osteoarthritis (KOA) with cognitive function among 11,645 Chinese adults aged 45 or above from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS, 2011-2020). We found that both conditions were individually associated with poorer cognition (all β < 0; all p < .01). Depression, alone or with KOA, consistently demonstrated lower global and subdomain-specific cognitive scores (all β < 0; all p < .001). Comorbid depression and KOA generally exerted greater negative impact on cognition than either condition alone. Our findings highlight early screening and holistic, rather than single-disease, care approaches.