Can depression and depressive symptoms predict mortality at 18-month follow-up in acutely medically ill inpatients over the age of 80 years?
BACKGROUND
The prevalence of depression in acutely medically ill elderly inpatients is high. Depression in the elderly is associated with increased mortality.


METHODS
The association between mortality at 18-month follow-up and depression, depressive symptoms and demographic variables at the outset in a cohort of acutely medically ill elderly inpatients was examined.


RESULTS
The mortality at 18-month follow-up was 47%. Depression, depressive symptoms and demographic variables were not associated with mortality.


CONCLUSIONS
An important explanation of this absence of association between mortality and depression may be an artifact due to patient selection designed to resemble normal clinical practice.
Shah
A
A
Imperial College of Medicine, London, UK. a.shah@cxwms.ac.uk
D000208:Acute Disease; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001293:Attitude to Death; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003863:Depression / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007902:Length of Stay; D008297:Male; D009026:Mortality; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric