Prevalence of depressive symptoms and syndromes in later life in ten European countries: the SHARE study.
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.
Castro-Costa
E
E
Section of Epidemiology, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, De Crespigny Park, London, UK. dacosta.bhe@terra.com.br
Dewey
M
M
Stewart
R
R
Banerjee
S
S
Huppert
F
F
Mendonca-Lima
C
C
Bula
C
C
Reisches
F
F
Wancata
J
J
Ritchie
K
K
Tsolaki
M
M
Mateos
R
R
Prince
M
M
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