title: Gender differences in affective suffering among racial/ethnically diverse, community-dwelling elders.
abstract: Objective. Copious research shows a female excess of unipolar depression. The generalizability of this finding is examined in a racial/ethnically diverse, community-residing, elder sample. Design. Depressive suffering was assessed both categorically and linearly with the Index of Affective Suffering (IAS), a hierarchal measure designed to examine intensity and extensity of suffering. In-home interviews by specially trained raters also collected demographic, functional, and social health data. Prevalence rates of affective suffering were examined separately for Latinos (N=996, Females=46.8%), Blacks (N=717, Females=36.5%), and Whites (N=415, Females=18.6%). Results. Analyzed by gender alone these data support the typical wisdom that females report significantly more depressed affect than males. However, by racial/ethnic group categorical analysis indicates that among Whites and Latinos, women reported more symptoms of clinically significant affective suffering than males; whereas, among Blacks, women and men did not differ from each other. Moreover, risk factors commonly associated with excess female depression failed to explain observed differences. Conclusion. The absence of a between-gender difference in affective suffering observed among Black elders in this study raises questions about generalized assumptions of greater 'female' vulnerability for this age group. A need for research to appreciate the heterogeneity of elder individuals is highlighted as is the importance of using dimensional assessment techniques in psychiatric epidemiology.
authors.affiliation: Department of Behavioral Sciences and Social Work, Winston-Salem State University, Winston-Salem, NC 27110, USA. yancuc@wssu.edu
authors.forename: Cecile N
authors.initials: CN
authors.lastname: Yancu
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D044383:Black People; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000208:ethnology*; D005006:Ethnicity; D005260:Female; D006630:Hispanic or Latino; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009657:North Carolina / Q000453:epidemiology; D015995:Prevalence; D011446:Prospective Studies; D017678:Sex Distribution; D044465:White People; D001741:Black or African American