Sadness predicts death in older people.
OBJECTIVE
To determine if a question about symptoms of depression in a mail survey predicts mortality after adjusting for a large number of covariates.


METHODS
National cross-sectional survey of 141,589 enrollees in Medicare, age 65 and older. Analyses used multivariate logistic regression models with death as the outcome.


RESULTS
Response to a question about sadness or anhedonia was associated with death in 2 years (OR = 1.32; 95% CI = 1.2, 1.4). Results were consistent across age, gender, and presence/absence of known heart disease. Other responses associated with death were older age, male gender, and self-reported cancers, shortness of breath, heart failure, smoking, and other characteristics. Higher education and being married appeared to protect from death.


CONCLUSIONS
A single survey question about feelings of sadness or anhedonia is predictive of death in 2 years.
Cooper
James K
JK
George Washington University, USA.
Harris
Yael
Y
McGready
John
J
D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D003863:Depression / Q000150:complications / Q000401:mortality*; D004417:Dyspnea; D005260:Female; D005544:Forecasting; D006306:Health Surveys; D006331:Heart Diseases / Q000150:complications / Q000401:mortality; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D017533:Marital Status; D006278:Medicare; D012307:Risk Factors; D012737:Sex Factors; D012907:Smoking; D014481:United States