Abstract: Objective To analyze the status and influencing factors of depression in Chinese elderly aged ≥60 years, to provide a reference for the formulation of depression prevention and control policy. Methods Based on the survey data of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Survey in 2020, the related data of behavior and life habits, health status, and life function of the elderly aged ≥60 years were selected. The multivariate stepwise logistic model was used to analyze the influencing factors of depression, and the MLP neural network model was constructed to rank the importance of the influencing factors. Results A total of 8 337 elderly people aged ≥60 years were included, and the prevalence of depression was 41.05%. The Logistic regression results showed that women (OR=1.79), agricultural household registration (OR=1.52), current address in rural areas (OR=1.28), married and separated (OR=1.33), divorced/widowed (OR=1.36), illiterate (OR=1.41), primary education level (OR=1.36), per capita monthly household expenditure<1 500 yuan (OR=1.32), sleep time<6 hours (OR=1.85), combined with≥2 chronic diseases (OR=1.46), high BADL score (OR=1.19), and high IADL score (OR=1.06) had a higher probability of depression in elderly people aged≥60 years. The probability of depression in elderly people aged ≥60 years who had quit smoking (OR=0.83), moderate to high intensity physical activity (OR=0.76), high health satisfaction (OR=0.53, 0.27), high life satisfaction (OR=0.24, 0.15), and high child satisfaction (OR=0.62, 0.47) was lower. The MLP neural network model showed that the relative importance ranking of the influencing factors for depression was from high to low, followed by life satisfaction, divorced/widowed, sleep time<6 hours, health satisfaction, current address in rural areas, sleep time>8 hours, child satisfaction, moderate to high intensity physical activity, married and separated, and current address in the urban-rural fringe. Conclusion The prevalence of depression in Chinese elderly aged ≥60 years is relatively high, and the mental health of the elderly should be promoted by advocating smoking cessation, regular exercise, maintaining proper sleep, and maintaining satisfaction with life.

Key words: Depression, Elderly people, Mental health, Influencing factor