Abstract: Objective To investigate the association between characteristic-specific adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) events and depression among middle-aged and elderly Chinese. Methods The study subjects were screened from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) database released by Peking University, based on research objective and inclusion/exclusion criteria. The median interpolation and multiple interpolation methods were adopted for the missing data, and multivariate analysis with stratification and Logistic regression model was adopted to estimate the effect of ACEs on depression in the subjects with different genders, ages, education levels and income. Poisson regression model was used to analyze the sensitivity of Logistic regression model. Results A total of 13 561 samples from CHARLS were enrolled in this study. The prevalence of depression was 11.03%, and 94.17% of the subjects had at least one ACE. Logistic regression analysis with stratification showed that there was statistically significant association between depression and ACEs in all subgroups (P＜0.05), with relatively higher OR in men (OR=1.373), population aged 60 years and older (OR=1.327), with primary school education and below (OR=1.325), and low income (OR=1.310). The results of Poisson regression model showed that Logistic regression model with stratification was statistically robust. Conclusions The risk of depression after ACEs is relatively higher in men, the elderly, or the population with lower level of education and income. The preliminary understanding of these high-risk characteristics will promote healthy aging.

Key words: depression, adverse childhood experience, middle-aged and elderly, stratification analysis