Prevalence and correlates of depressive symptoms in a community sample of people suffering from heart failure.
OBJECTIVE
To examine the rates and correlates of depressive symptoms and syndromal depression in people with self-reported heart failure participating in a community study of people aged 70 and older.


METHODS
Cross-sectional.


METHODS
Community-based epidemiological study of older people from the continental United States.


METHODS
Six thousand one hundred twenty-five older people participating in the longitudinal study of Assets and Health Dynamics. Participants had to be born in 1923 or earlier.


METHODS
The short-form Composite International Diagnostic Interview assessed syndromal depression, and a revised version of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression scale assessed depressive symptoms. Medical illness was based on self-report. The authors compared the rates of syndromal depression and individual depressive symptoms in people with self-reported heart failure (n = 199) with those in people with other heart conditions (n = 1,856) and with no heart conditions (n = 4,070).


RESULTS
Eleven percent of those with heart failure met criteria for syndromal depression, compared with 4.8% of people with other heart conditions and 3.2% of those with no heart conditions. The association between heart failure and depression held even after controlling for disability, reported fatigue and breathlessness, and number of comorbid chronic illnesses.


CONCLUSIONS
Community-living older people with self-reported heart failure were at approximately twice the risk for syndromal depression of the rest of the community. Although fatigue and functional disability were also related to depression in this sample, these variables did not account for the association between syndromal depression and self-reported heart failure.
Turvey
Carolyn L
CL
Department of Psychiatry, College of Medicine, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA. carolyn-turvey@uiowa.edu
Schultz
Kara
K
Arndt
Stephan
S
Wallace
Robert B
RB
Herzog
Regula
R
D000368:Aged; D003863:Depression / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*; D005260:Female; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology