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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| Depression measured by the Zung Depression Status Inventory is very rare in a Finnish population aged 85 years and over | | Author(s) | Minna Kiljunen, Raimo Sulkava, Leena Niinistö |
| Journal title | International Psychogeriatrics, vol 9, no 3, September 1997 |
| Pages | pp 359-368 |
| Keywords | Depression ; Symptoms ; Octogenarians ; Screening ; Evaluation ; Finland. |
| Annotation | The Zung Depression Status Inventory (DSI) was used to evaluate the prevalence of various depressive symptoms in a representative sample of 467 people aged 85 and over in the city of Vantaa, Finland. The DSI scores ranged from 20 to 80: the higher the score, the more severe the disturbance. In the subjects interviewed (362 women and 195 men), the prevalence estimates of depression with cutoff scores used in earlier studies (40 and 48) were very low: 5.2% and 1.1%. Also, the mean DSI score (and standard deviation, SD) was very low, 27.9 (6.4). Scores tended to decrease with age, although differences were not statistically significant. The DSI means were 28.0 (6.1) for women and 27.3 (7.2) for men (p=0.0349). Women had greater risk of being classified as depressed on the DSI (odds ratio: 1.60, 95% confidence interval: 1.00-2.57, p=.049). Feelings of emptiness, personal devaluation, and depressive mood were the most common depressive symptoms. This particular population-based study shows that subjective experience of depression is very rare in Finnish people aged 85 and over. These results suggest that optimistic mood might give some protection against death. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-981001006 A |
| Classmark | ENR: CT: BBM: 3V: 4C: 76L |
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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