Centre for Policy on Ageing



Stressful life events and depressive symptoms among the elderly: evidence from a prospective community study
Author(s)	Thomas A Glass, Stanislav V Kasl, Lisa F Berkman
Journal title	Journal of Aging and Health, vol 9, no 1,, February 1997
Pages	pp 70-89
Keywords	Depression ; Stress ; Living in the community ; United States of America.
Annotation	This study examined the effect of a series of common stressful life events on change in depressive symptoms among older people. The subjects were 1,962 non-institutionalised people aged 65 years or older from the New Haven Established Populations for the Epidemiologic Study of the Elderly (EPESE) project. Multivariate regression models revealed that 8 of 11 stressful life events examined predicted change in depressive symptoms at follow-up after controlling for baseline depressive symptoms, age, socioeconomic factors, functional status, and chronic conditions. In addition, the total number of stressful life events was significantly associated with higher CES-D depression scores. A dose-response relationship between cumulative life event stress and change in depressive symptoms was also shown. These results suggest that certain common life event stressors may have an impact on mental health, both singly and in combination. (AKM).
Accession Number	CPA-980407210 A
Classmark	ENR: QNH: K4: 7T
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...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.