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©The Author(s) 2025. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
Prevalence of depression and anxiety and related influencing factors in the Chinese population with noncommunicable chronic diseases: A network perspective
Hua-Yu Li, Dong-Yu Song, Yi-Qing Weng, Yuan-Hao Tong, Yi-Bo Wu, Hong-Mei Wang
Hua-Yu Li, Yi-Qing Weng, Hong-Mei Wang, Department of Social Medicine of School of Public Health, and Department of Pharmacy of The First Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou 310058, Zhejiang Province, China
Dong-Yu Song, Intensive Care Unit of Cardiac Surgery, Shandong Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Shandong First Medical University, Jinan 250021, Shandong Province, China
Yuan-Hao Tong, Department of Orthopedics, National Center for Orthopedics, Shanghai Sixth People’s Hospital, Shanghai 200030, China
Yi-Bo Wu, Department of Nursing, The Fourth Affiliated Hospital of School of Medicine, and International School of Medicine, International Institutes of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Yiwu 322000, Zhejiang Province, China
Yi-Bo Wu, School of Public Health, Peking University, Beijing 100191, China
Co-corresponding authors: Yi-Bo Wu and Hong-Mei Wang.
Author contributions: Li HY was responsible for writing the original draft; Li HY and Song DY were responsible for data curation; Li HY, Song DY, and Weng YQ were responsible for the methodology; Li HY and Tong YH were responsible for the formal analysis; Song DY and Weng YQ were responsible for validation; Song DY, Wu YB, and Wang HM were responsible for reviewing and editing; Wu YB and Wang HM were responsible for conceptualization, resources, supervision, and project administration as the co-corresponding authors; All authors read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: This study was approved by the Ethics Research Committee of the Health Culture Research Center of Shaanxi.
Informed consent statement: All study participants, or their legal guardian, provided informed written consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no competing interests.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement—checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement—checklist of items.
Data sharing statement: Data are not publicly available but may be requested from the authors on reasonable request. Data used in this study were extracted from the Psychology and Behavior Investigation of Chinese Residents conducted by the corresponding author.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See:
https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/ Corresponding author: Hong-Mei Wang, PhD, Professor, Department of Social Medicine of School of Public Health, and Department of Pharmacy of The First Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, No. 866 Yuhangtang Road, Xihu District, Hangzhou 310058, Zhejiang Province, China.
rosa@zju.edu.cn
Received: May 22, 2025
Revised: June 9, 2025
Accepted: July 14, 2025
Published online: September 19, 2025
Processing time: 97 Days and 1.2 Hours
BACKGROUND
The prevalence and severity of noncommunicable chronic diseases (NCDs) among Chinese residents have been increasing with mental health emerging as a critical challenge in disease management.
AIM
To examine the interactions between depression, anxiety symptoms, and related factors, and to identify key factors in the Chinese population with NCDs.
METHODS
Data from the Psychology and Behavior Investigation of Chinese Residents were used in a cross-sectional survey of 6182 individuals with NCDs. This study measured depression and anxiety symptoms as well as their influencing factors including social environments, individual behaviors and lifestyles, and subjective indicators. A network analysis approach was used for data assessment.
RESULTS
Network analysis demonstrated that several central factors (media exposure, family health, problematic internet use, suboptimal health status, intimate relationship violence, tired or little energy, and nervousness/anxious/on edge) and bridge factors (media exposure, problematic internet use, intimate partner violence, health literacy, and suboptimal health status) that significantly influenced the co-occurrence and interconnectedness of depression and anxiety symptoms. Additionally, gender, ethnicity, residency, and living status did not significantly influence the overall network strength.
CONCLUSION
Depression and anxiety are prevalent among the Chinese population with NCDs. Effective interventions should focus on managing key symptoms, promoting correct media use for health information, and fostering healthier family relationships.
Core Tip: This study, leveraging data from the Psychology and Behavior Investigation of Chinese Residents and employing network analysis, revealed the intricate relationships between depression and anxiety symptoms and multidimensional influencing factors among Chinese individuals with noncommunicable chronic diseases. Media exposure, family health, problematic internet use, suboptimal health status, and intimate relationship violence were identified as key central and bridge factors. These findings suggested that interventions targeting these factors, particularly guiding the correct use of media information and fostering harmonious family dynamics, may be crucial for improving the mental health of this population.
