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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| Incidence of a major depression in a very elderly population | | Author(s) | Y Forsell, B Winblad |
| Journal title | International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, vol 14, no 5, May 1999 |
| Pages | pp 368-372 |
| Keywords | Depression ; Over 70s ; Octogenarians ; Social surveys ; Sweden. |
| Annotation | Depression is considered to be a major health problem in older people. Due to methodological problems, there are few studies on the incidence of depression in old age. The present study examines the prevalence of depression in a 3-year follow-up study of a non-depressed very old population, thus estimating the incidence. 875 non-depressed people with a mean age of 85 years from the Kungsholmen district, Stockholm, Sweden, were extensively examined by physicians twice with a 3-year interval. Depression diagnosis was made according to DSM-IV. All persons with a history of depression or a current depression were excluded in order to estimate the first incidence. 4.1% of the population was diagnosed as having a depression at follow-up. The estimated first incidence was 1.4% per person year (0.8% in males, and 1.5% in females). Characteristics at baseline correlated with the onset of depression were: having a dementia; insufficient social network; and having more than two depressive symptoms. The incidence of depression was slightly lower in this very old population than for younger age groups, but followed the same female to male ratio. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-990825260 A |
| Classmark | ENR: BBK: BBM: 3F: 76P |
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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