title: Depression and its relationship to function and medical status, by dementia status, in nursing home admissions.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine rates of depression by dementia status in a statewide sample of nursing home admissions, and associations with medical comorbidity and physical functioning.
  
  
  METHODS
  Trained interviewers obtained information from nursing home residents, staff, significant others, and medical records.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 22.3% were classified depressed in the nondemented status and 23.6% in the demented status. Depression status was significantly associated with more physical dependencies regardless of dementia status. In the nondemented, there was also a significant positive association with number of comorbidities. One interaction, dementia with comorbidity at the highest levels of comorbidity, was significant in looking at association with depression.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  There is significant depressive symptomatology in nursing home admissions, which is also associated with difficulty in physical function and with the number of medical comorbidities in the nondemented. Application of the two measures used in this study represents a strategy to assess depression in all nursing home residents.
authors.affiliation: Mental Health Clinical Center, Veterans Affairs Maryland Health Care System, Baltimore, MD 21201, USA. bruce.kaup@med.va.gov
authors.forename: Bruce A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Kaup
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Loreck
authors.forename: Ann L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Gruber-Baldini
authors.forename: Pearl
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: German
authors.forename: A S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Menon
authors.forename: Sheryl
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zimmerman
authors.forename: Lynda
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Burton
authors.forename: Jay
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Magaziner
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology; D015897:Comorbidity; D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000453:epidemiology; D003704:Dementia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D009735:Nursing Homes / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010343:Patient Admission / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D029424:Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive / Q000453:epidemiology; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires