title: Prevalence of depressive symptoms and syndromes in later life in ten European countries: the SHARE study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The EURO-D, a12-item self-report questionnaire for depression, was developed with the aim of facilitating cross-cultural research into late-life depression in Europe.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To describe the national variation in depression symptoms and syndrome prevalence across ten European countries.
  
  
  METHODS
  The EURO-D was administered to cross-sectional nationally representative samples of non-institutionalised persons aged > or =50 years (n=22 777). The effects of age, gender, education and cognitive functioning on individual symptoms and EURO-D factor scores were estimated. Country-specific depression prevalence rates and mean factor scores were re-estimated, adjusted for these compositional effects.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The prevalence of all symptoms was higher in the Latin ethno-lingual group of countries, especially symptoms related to motivation. Women scored higher on affective suffering; older people and those with impaired verbal fluency scored higher on motivation.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The prevalence of individual EURO-D symptoms and of probable depression (cut-off score > or =4) varied consistently between countries. Standardising for effects of age, gender, education and cognitive function suggested that these compositional factors did not account for the observed variation.
authors.affiliation: Section of Epidemiology, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, De Crespigny Park, London, UK. dacosta.bhe@terra.com.br
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Castro-Costa
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dewey
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Stewart
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Banerjee
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Huppert
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Mendonca-Lima
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bula
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Reisches
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wancata
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ritchie
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tsolaki
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Mateos
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Prince
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D003071:Cognition; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003863:Depression / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D004522:Educational Status; D005060:Europe / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009042:Motivation; D015995:Prevalence; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012737:Sex Factors