Emotional and instrumental social support and older adults' depressive symptoms: collaborative individual participant data meta-analysis of 11 population-based studies of aging.

Social support is considered a protective factor against depression, but there are inconsistent findings regarding social support and depression in older adults. We aimed to clarify the association between emotional and instrumental social support and depressive symptoms in older adults cross-sectionally and longitudinally (mean follow-up = 1.96 years). We meta-analyzed raw individual participant level data from adults in mid- and late life (N = 23 973) who completed questionnaires about physical health, mental health, and social support and completed neuropsychological assessments. These were COSMIC (Cohort Studies of Memory in an International Consortium) cohort studies carried out in Australia, Brazil, China, Germany, Greece, India, Indonesia, Singapore, South Korea, Sweden, and the United States in mostly urban settings. After controlling for depression risk factors, emotional support (B = -0.40 [95% CI, -0.60 to -0.21]), but not instrumental support (B = 0.17 [95% CI, -0.26 to 0.59]), was associated with lower depressive symptoms cross-sectionally and at follow-up [emotional support (B = -0.37 [95% CI, -0.54 to -0.20]); instrumental support (B = 0.09 [95% CI, -0.30 to 0.49])]. Emotional support was associated with lower depressive scores cross-sectionally and longitudinally, while instrumental support was not associated with depressive symptoms. Our findings can help inform the nature of interventions to prevent and reduce risk of depression among older adults. This article is part of a Special Collection on Cross-National Gerontology.