Associations between physical health and depressive symptoms in Chinese older adults: Do neighborhood resources matter?

•Neighborhood resources alleviate the emotional consequence of poor physical health among older adults in China.•Leisure amenities in neighborhoods buffer the effect of activity limitations on depressive symptoms of urban older Chinese.•Leisure amenities in neighborhoods buffer the effect of chronic conditions on depressive symptoms of rural older Chinese.•Multilevel regression analysis was carried out in a national representative sample of older adults in China.

This is one of the first studies to examine the buffering effect of neighborhood resources, specifically leisure amenities and voluntary associations, on the relationship between poor physical health and depressive symptoms among older persons in China. Using data from the 2011 baseline survey of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study, the analytical sample included 4715 older adults aged 60 and over nested in 446 neighborhoods. Two-level linear regression analyses were conducted in the urban (n=1225) and rural (n=3490) samples, respectively. We found that leisure amenities significantly reduced the effect of ADL limitations on depressive symptoms in urban older adults, and alleviated the effect of chronic conditions on depressive symptoms in rural older Chinese.