Impact of Functional Disability on Depressive Symptoms among Middle-aged and Elderly People in China: Evidence from China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study

Existing research has demonstrated a strong relationship between elderly functional disability and depressive symptoms. Few studies, however, have explored the causality, long-term effects, and mechanisms of middle-aged and elderly functional disability’s impact on depressive symptoms. Data were drawn from the 2013, 2015, 2018 and 2020 China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS). This study consists of 6173 middle-aged and elderly respondents. And all participant’s depressive symptoms and activities of daily living (ADLs) and instrumental ADLS (IADLs) was assessed four times. A quasi-natural experiment method of difference-in-differences (DID) was used to eliminate endogenous problems caused by missing variables.