Prevalence of late-life depression and its correlates in a community-dwelling low-educated population aged 75+ years: The Pietà study.

BACKGROUND: The number of individuals with advanced age is growing worldwide, especially in developing countries. Depression is the most common mental disorder in the elderly. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence rates and the correlates of late-life depression (LLD) and clinically significant depressive symptoms (CSDS) in a population aged 75+ years.

METHODS: We evaluated 639 community-dwelling individuals aged 75+ years in Caeté (MG), Brazil, and used the MINI to diagnose LLD according to DSM-IV criteria and the GDS-15 to identify CSDS. Quality of life was assessed by the WHOQOL-OLD scale.

RESULTS: Overall, 639 individuals (64% female, with a mean age of 81.1 ± 5.2 and 2.6 ± 2.8 years of schooling) were evaluated; 70 (11.1%) were diagnosed with LLD and 146 (25.6%) with CSDS. Depressed subjects (both with LLD and CSDS) had poorer measures of quality of life. Logistic regression analyses showed that LLD was independently associated to a history of falls/fracture, a diagnosis of cognitive impairment-no dementia, the number of regular drugs used, lack of reading habit and, inversely, to systolic blood pressure.

LIMITATIONS: The use of MINI which has not been validated in the elderly. No information was available on the number of previous depressive episodes or on the age of first episode.

CONCLUSION: Both dimensional and categorical diagnoses of depression were prevalent among community-dwelling oldest-old individuals. Different clinical and personal variables were associated with depression, which negatively influenced the quality of life of the affected individuals.