| Abstract | The Health and Retirement Study is a longitudinal study that is conducted every other year
in the United States and has served as a precursor to similar studies across the world, such
as the Mexican Health and Aging Study. The purpose of the current project was evaluating
the relationship between depressive symptoms, inflammation and physical activity levels
using data from the HRS and MHAS studies. The current project was divided in two main
studies. The first study aimed at establishing measurement invariance in a brief
questionnaire about depressive symptoms, the CES-D 8. The second study looked at various
theories of depression including the inflammation theory and the economic theory of
depression and other constructs in a larger, novel model called the Multisystemic Geriatric
Depression Cycle. For the first study, MPlus was used to conduct measurement invariance
analyses in 15,319 participants ages sixty- five and older from both datasets. For the second
study, various regression, mediation and moderation analyses were conducted using
variables like C-reactive protein, physical activity, loneliness, frequency of social contact
and perceived social support. Because measurement invariance was not supported by results
in Study 1, analyses and results in Study 2 were only interpreted for the HRS sample.
Results from second study showed support for the inflammation theory of depression,
partial support for the economic theory of depression with cross-sectional data, and the
cross-sectional and longitudinal mediating effect of perceived negative social support in the
relationship between loneliness and depression. This project highlights further need for
improvement of measures administered cross-culturally to guarantee meaningful
comparison of construct of depression among culturally diverse groups. This study adds to
the growing body of literature guiding harmonization efforts from the Program on Global
Aging, Health and Policy.
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