Depressive symptoms and age-related macular degeneration in older people: the cardiovascular health study.
OBJECTIVE
To examine the association between age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and depressive symptoms.


METHODS
Population-based, cross-sectional study. A total of 2,194 persons aged 69-97 years were included in the current analyses. During the 1997-1998 examination, retinal photography from one randomly selected eye was graded for presence of early and late AMD using a modified Wisconsin AMD by Grading System. Depressive symptoms were assessed via a modified version of the Centers for Epidemiologic Studies Depression (CES-D) scale annually from 1989 through 1997-1998. Depressive symptoms were defined as a CES-D score of >9 (top quartile of CES-D score) at the 1997-1998 examination.


RESULTS
There were 338 (15.6%) individuals with early AMD and 29 (1.3%) with late AMD. Among them, 368 (16.8%) persons had depressive symptoms at the 1997-1998 examination. Depressive symptoms were not associated with early AMD (multivariable adjusted odds ratio [OR]: 0.97; 95% confidence intervals [CI]: 0.69-1.36) or late AMD (OR: 1.15; 95% CI: 0.38-3.46). Including persons using anti-depressive medications did not alter these associations (OR: 0.98; 95% CI: 0.74-1.32 for early AMD and OR: 0.97; 95% CI: 0.35-2.67 for late AMD). There was no association in multinomial logistic regression models of increasing quartiles of the CES-D scores with early or late AMD status.


CONCLUSIONS
Our study did not find an association between early AMD and depressive symptoms in older people.
Sun
Cong
C
Centre for Eye Research Australia, University of Melbourne, Australia.
Tikellis
Gabriella
G
Klein
Ronald
R
Steffens
David C
DC
Larsen
Emily K Marino
EK
Wong
Tien Y
TY
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D007361:Intelligence Tests; D008268:Macular Degeneration / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D008297:Male; D010781:Photography; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology