Centre for Policy on Ageing



Quality adjusted life years in older adults with depressive symptoms and chronic medical disorders — first place 1999 IPA/Bayer Research Awards in Psychogeriatrics
Author(s)	Jürgen Unützer, Donald L Patrick, Paula Diehr
Journal title	International Psychogeriatrics, vol 12, no 1, March 2000
Pages	pp 15-34
Keywords	Quality of life ; Depression ; Chronic illness ; General practice ; Longitudinal surveys ; United States of America.
Annotation	Data from a 4-year prospective study of 2,558 US 65+ primary care patients in a large health maintenance organization (HMO) were used in linear regression models to determine the association of clinically significant depressive symptoms and eight other chronic medical conditions with quality adjusted life years (QALYs). Depressive symptoms were as defined by a score of 16 or more on the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D). Estimates of QALYs were derived from Quality of Well-Being Scale scores at baseline, 2 years and 4 years. Those with clinically significant depressive symptoms at baseline had significantly lower QALYs over the 4 years. In terms of the entire study population, only arthritis and heart disease were more strongly associated with QALYs than depression. (RH).
Accession Number	CPA-001109204 A
Classmark	F:59: ENR: CI: L5: 3J: 7T
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...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.