• Longitudinal links observed among depression, anxiety and QoL • Time-ordered associations observed between mental health and QoL • QoL relates more strongly to later depression than the reverse • Depression relates more strongly to later anxiety than the reverse Ageing in Europe presents major public health challenges. Depression and anxiety are common in later life and consistently linked to reduced quality of life, yet evidence on how these constructs relate to each other over time remains limited, particularly when constrained by short longitudinal designs that limit causal and within-person interpretation. This study aimed to examine time-ordered longitudinal associations among depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, and quality of life in older adults across multiple European countries. Data were drawn from Waves 4 and 5 of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe, including 27,587 older adults. Cross-lagged panel models assessed population-level, between-person longitudinal associations across two adjacent waves, while accounting for the stability of each construct and adjusting for age, sex, and marital status. Depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, and quality of life were analysed as continuous variables. Because only two waves were available, the model captures between-person longitudinal associations rather than within-person change. All three constructs showed strong autoregressive effects. Higher depressive and anxiety symptoms at baseline were associated with lower quality of life at follow-up, whereas lower baseline quality of life was associated with higher subsequent depressive and anxiety symptoms. Depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, and quality of life are longitudinally associated at the population level across two time points. Interventions promoting healthy ageing may be more effective when addressing emotional well-being and quality of life simultaneously, while future research using multi-wave designs is needed to test within-person processes and more complex longitudinal patterns.
Lopez et al. (Fri,) studied this question.