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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Assessing depression in medically ill elderly male veterans
— item scale properties across and within racial groups | | Author(s) | Michele J Karel, Jennifer Moye |
| Journal title | Journal of Mental Health and Aging, vol 8 no 2, Summer 2002 |
| Pages | pp 121-138 |
| Keywords | Depression ; Evaluation ; Older men ; Ethnic groups ; United States of America. |
| Annotation | Identifying depression in older medically ill men and understanding how such depression may present differently within racial sub-groups is critical, due to health and suicide risks. This US study examines how 967 Black, Hispanic and White men aged 60+ male veterans presenting symptoms of depression and admitted to hospital were subsequently evaluated using the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS)-15 item, the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS)-24 item, and Affect Balance Scale. Across the total sample, cognitive or affective symptoms of depression - including feelings of emptiness, unhappiness, worthlessness, hopelessness and helplessness - were strongly associated with depression as measured by total scale scores on the GDS and HDRS. There were some differences between ethnic sub-groups in frequency of item endorsement and in item-scale correlations. Black men endorsed lower depressive symptoms overall. Challenges for determining the meaning of ethnic differences in depressive symptoms in medically ill older people are discussed. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-020924224 A |
| Classmark | ENR: 4C: BC: TK: 7T |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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