Chinese older adults

Background Sleep duration is an important component of healthy aging, yet gender differences in short and long sleep among older adults remain insufficiently understood. This study aimed to examine gender differences in sleep duration among Chinese older adults and quantify the contributions of socioeconomic, behavioral, functional, and health-related factors to these differences. Methods Data were obtained from 9,590 adults aged ≥65 years who participated in the 2018 wave of the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey. Sleep duration was self-reported and categorized as short (<6 h), normal (6–8 h), or long (>8 h). Multinomial logistic regression was used to identify factors associated with short and long sleep, with weighted analyses and Poisson regression performed as sensitivity analyses. Separate Fairlie decomposition analyses were conducted for short and long sleep to quantify the contributions of observed characteristics to gender differences. Results Overall, 44.95% of participants had abnormal sleep duration, with a higher prevalence among women than men (46.87% vs. 42.66%, p < 0.001). Compared with men, women had a higher relative risk of short sleep (RRR = 1.399, 95% CI: 1.204–1.625) but a lower relative risk of long sleep (RRR = 0.856, 95% CI: 0.754–0.972). The association with short sleep remained significant in the weighted analysis (RRR = 1.530, 95% CI: 1.210–1.935), whereas the gender difference in long sleep was attenuated (RRR = 0.821, 95% CI: 0.661–1.021). For short sleep, observed characteristics explained 21.65% of the gender disparity. Education (22.75%), depressive symptoms (11.07%), IADL limitation (6.02%), and self-assessed health (4.82%) contributed positively to the disparity, whereas smoking status (−22.57%), drinking status (−12.45%), and exercise (−4.87%) partially offset it. The gender difference in long sleep was negligible, with substantial offsetting contributions across factors. Conclusion Gender differences in sleep duration among Chinese older adults were primarily concentrated in short sleep, with women experiencing a higher risk. Socioeconomic, behavioral, psychological, and functional characteristics contributed to this disparity, although most of the short-sleep difference remained unexplained. Gender-sensitive interventions addressing educational disadvantage, depressive symptoms, functional limitations, and health behaviors may help reduce inequalities in sleep duration among older adults.

Whether breadth of leisure activity engagement (LAE) is associated with cognitive resilience (CR) in older Chinese adults, and whether this association differs by gender, remain unclear. Using five waves of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (2011–2020), we estimated CR as the residual of global cognition after accounting for age, education, gender, residence, and chronic disease burden, and examined activity × gender interactions in generalized estimating equations ( n = 7130 observations from 3293 adults aged ≥60). Cognitive and social activity breadth were each independently associated with higher CR, but with contrasting domain patterns. Cognitive activities showed a linear dose-response with comparable associations in both genders (males β = 0.164, females β = 0.171, both p < 0.001; Activity × Gender interaction p = 0.435). Social activities followed a quadratic dose-response peaking at approximately three activity types. In gender-stratified models, the social-activity association was concentrated in males ( β = 0.164, p < 0.001) and was not significant among females ( β = 0.032, p = 0.323; activity × gender interaction β = −0.111, p = 0.020), despite higher social participation rates among women. Lagged analyses supported temporal precedence. These findings indicate that the resilience associations of LAE breadth in older Chinese adults are domain- and gender-dependent: cognitive activity breadth was positively associated with CR in both genders, whereas this association was concentrated in men for social activities. These findings warrant further investigation of whether the content, context, or measurement of social engagement contributes to the observed gender difference.

Background Optimizing self-care decision-making is important for healthy aging, chronic disease management, and health promotion in rapidly aging populations. However, the absence of culturally validated instruments limits the systematic assessment of decision-making styles and the development of person-centered health management strategies for older adults in China. This study aimed to translate and culturally adapt the Inventory of Self-Care Decision-Making Styles of Older Adults (DECIDE) and evaluate its psychometric properties among Chinese older adults. Methods This study was conducted in two phases. In phase 1, the DECIDE was translated and cross-culturally adapted into Chinese using Brislin’s forward-backward translation procedure. Expert review and pilot testing were conducted to refine linguistic clarity and cultural relevance. In phase 2, a multicenter cross-sectional validation study was conducted from November 2025 to January 2026. A total of 3,470 older adults were recruited through multicenter convenience sampling from 15 cities in Sichuan, Liaoning, Zhejiang, and Hunan provinces, China. Psychometric evaluation included item analysis, validity assessment, and reliability testing. Results All 20 items met the prespecified retention criteria, and the Chinese version retained the four-dimensional structure of the original DECIDE. Content validity was satisfactory, with I-CVI values ranging from 0.800 to 1.000 and an S-CVI of 0.950. Exploratory factor analysis yielded four factors explaining 65.73% of the common variance, and confirmatory factor analysis supported the resulting model (CMIN/DF = 2.513, RMSEA = 0.028). The AVE and CR values ranged from 0.502 to 0.588 and from 0.834 to 0.877, respectively, and the findings supported both convergent and discriminant validity. Cronbach’s α, split-half reliability, and 2-week retest reliability for the total inventory were 0.896, 0.790, and 0.861, respectively. Conclusion The C-DECIDE demonstrated satisfactory psychometric properties in this multicenter convenience sample of older adults from four Chinese provinces. It may support the assessment of self-care decision-making styles and inform individualized health education, decision-support strategies, and public health-oriented chronic disease management for older adults.

زمینه و هدف: بهینه‌سازی تصمیم‌گیری خودمراقبتی برای سالمندی سالم، مدیریت بیماری‌های مزمن و ارتقای سلامت در جمعیت‌های در حال سالمند شدن سریع اهمیت دارد. با این حال، فقدان ابزارهای اعتبارسنجی‌شده فرهنگی، ارزیابی نظام‌مند سبک‌های تصمیم‌گیری و توسعه راهبردهای مدیریت سلامت فردمحور برای سالمندان در چین را محدود می‌کند. هدف این مطالعه ترجمه و انطباق فرهنگی پرسشنامه سبک‌های تصمیم‌گیری خودمراقبتی سالمندان (DECIDE) و ارزیابی ویژگی‌های روان‌سنجی آن در میان سالمندان چینی بود. روش‌ها: این مطالعه در دو مرحله انجام شد. در مرحله اول، پرسشنامه DECIDE با استفاده از روش ترجمه پیشرو-پسرو Brislin به زبان چینی ترجمه و به صورت بین‌فرهنگی انطباق داده شد. بازبینی توسط خبرگان و آزمون مقدماتی جهت بهبود وضوح زبانی و تناسب فرهنگی انجام شد. در مرحله دوم، یک مطالعه اعتبارسنجی مقطعی چندمرکزی از نوامبر 2025 تا ژانویه 2026 انجام شد. در مجموع ۳۴۷۰ سالمند از طریق نمونه‌گیری در دسترس چندمرکزی از ۱۵ شهر در استان‌های سیچوان، لیائونینگ، ژجیانگ و هونان چین جذب شدند. ارزیابی روان‌سنجی شامل تحلیل ماده، ارزیابی روایی و آزمون پایایی بود. یافته‌ها: هر ۲۰ ماده معیارهای نگهداری از پیش تعیین‌شده را برآورده کردند و نسخه چینی ساختار چهاربعدی نسخه اصلی DECIDE را حفظ کرد. روایی محتوا رضایت‌بخش بود، به طوری که مقادیر I-CVI بین ۰٫۸۰۰ تا ۱٫۰۰۰ و S-CVI برابر با ۰٫۹۵۰ بود. تحلیل عاملی اکتشافی چهار عامل استخراج کرد که ۶۵٫۷۳٪ از واریانس مشترک را تبیین کردند و تحلیل عاملی تأییدی مدل حاصل را تأیید کرد (CMIN/DF = 2.513، RMSEA = 0.028). مقادیر AVE و CR به ترتیب بین ۰٫۵۰۲ تا ۰٫۵۸۸ و ۰٫۸۳۴ تا ۰٫۸۷۷ بود و یافته‌ها از روایی همگرا و متمایز حمایت کردند. آلفای کرونباخ، پایایی دو نیمه و پایایی بازآزمایی دو هفته‌ای برای کل پرسشنامه به ترتیب ۰٫۸۹۶، ۰٫۷۹۰ و ۰٫۸۶۱ بود. نتیجه‌گیری: نسخه چینی DECIDE ویژگی‌های روان‌سنجی رضایت‌بخشی را در این نمونه در دسترس چندمرکزی از سالمندان چهار استان چین نشان داد. این ابزار می‌تواند از ارزیابی سبک‌های تصمیم‌گیری خودمراقبتی و اطلاع‌رسانی به آموزش سلامت فردی، راهبردهای حمایت از تصمیم‌گیری و مدیریت بیماری‌های مزمن مبتنی بر سلامت عمومی برای سالمندان حمایت کند.