Cardiometabolic multimorbidity tied to depression in older adults
Depressive symptoms occurred in 38.6% of adults with cardiometabolic multimorbidity versus 33.0% without it, yielding an adjusted hazard ratio of 1.25.
Research Square
In a prospective cohort of 10,726 Chinese adults aged 45 and older, researchers examined how cardiometabolic multimorbidity affects the risk of developing depressive symptoms. The authors tracked participants in the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study from 2011 through 2020. They defined cardiometabolic multimorbidity as having at least two conditions among diabetes, heart disease, and stroke, which was present in 386 participants at baseline.
After adjusting for demographic, lifestyle, clinical, and laboratory factors, cardiometabolic multimorbidity was independently associated with higher depressive symptom risk (HR 1.25, 95% CI 1.05–1.49). When excluding individuals with depressive symptoms at baseline, the risk remained elevated (HR 1.32, 95% CI 1.02–1.72). The authors also found evidence of an additive interaction between cardiometabolic multimorbidity and cognitive dysfunction.
Why it matters
Cardiometabolic diseases and mood disorders frequently co-occur during aging. Clarifying how concurrent chronic vascular and metabolic conditions influence mental health helps clinicians identify compounding risks in older age.
Caveats
This observational study is a preprint that has not yet completed peer review, and depressive symptoms were measured via a screening questionnaire rather than a structured clinical diagnosis.
The paper
Second People’s Hospital of Yibin
Research Square · 30 Sep 2026 · Preprint, not peer-reviewed