The relationship between self-care ability and depression in elderly rural patients with coronary heart disease: A latent profile analysis

Objective This study investigated the latent profile characteristics of self-care ability in elderly rural patients with coronary heart disease and analysed its relationship with depression. Methods Data were collected from the Elderly Health Assessment Project at Shandong Provincial Hospital Affiliated with Shandong First Medical University. The Harman single-factor method was employed to test for common method bias. Latent profile analysis (LPA) was conducted to identify distinct subtypes of self-care ability. Multiple logistic regression analyses were used to explore the relationships between self-care ability and sociodemographic variables in elderly rural patients with coronary heart disease. ANOVA was used to explore the associations between self-care ability patterns and depression across different self-care ability groups. Results A total of 999 elderly rural patients with coronary heart disease could be divided into three categories of self-care ability: low self-care ability—struggling to start group (21.9%), moderate self-care ability—gradual adaptation group (32.4%), and high self-care ability—stable mastery group (45.7%). The factors influencing self-care ability profiles included age, monthly income, smoking status, vision loss status, types of medications, duration of disease, and self-rated health. This study also revealed a significant association between self-care ability and depression, with the high self-care ability group having the lowest depression scores (p < 0.001). Conclusion The findings highlight the heterogeneity in self-care ability in elderly rural patients with coronary heart disease and emphasize the importance of tailored interventions to address individual needs. Healthcare providers should focus on improving self-care ability and managing depression to enhance the quality of life and health outcomes in this population.