title: Race-related differences in depression onset and recovery in older persons over time: the health, aging, and body composition study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate race-related differences in depression onset and recovery in older persons, overall and by sex, and examine race-related differences in mortality according to depression.
  
  
  METHODS
  Prospective cohort study.
  
  
  METHODS
  General community in pre-designated zip code areas in Memphis, Tennessee, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
  
  
  METHODS
  3,075 persons aged 70-79 years at baseline in the Health, Aging, and Body Composition study.
  
  
  METHODS
  Depression was assessed at eight time points over 10 years using the 10-item Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression scale; patients were categorized as nondepressed (score less than 8) or depressed (score of 8 or higher). We created variables for transitions across each 18-month time interval, namely, from nondepressed or depressed to nondepressed, depressed, or death, and determined the association between race and the average likelihood of these transitions over time.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A higher percentage of blacks than whites were depressed at nearly all time points. Adjusting for demographics, common chronic conditions, and body mass index, blacks had a higher likelihood of experiencing depression onset than whites (odds ratio [OR]: 1.22; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.03-1.43); among men, blacks were more likely to experience depression onset than whites (OR: 1.44; 95% CI: 1.24-2.89). Blacks also had a higher likelihood of transitioning from nondepressed to death (OR: 1.79; 95% CI: 1.30-2.46). Overall and in sex-stratified analyses, race was not associated with recovery from depression or with the transition from depression to death.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our findings highlight race differences in depression in older persons and encourage further research on the course of depression in older black patients.
authors.affiliation: Center on Aging, University of Connecticut, Farmington, CT. Electronic address: LiBarry@uchc.edu.
authors.forename: Lisa C
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Barry
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD.
authors.forename: Roland J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Thorpe
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Brenda W J H
authors.initials: BW
authors.lastname: Penninx
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco, CA.
authors.forename: Kristine
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Yaffe
authors.affiliation: Center on Aging, University of Connecticut, Farmington, CT.
authors.forename: Dorothy
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wakefield
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of California, San Francisco, CA.
authors.forename: Hilsa N
authors.initials: HN
authors.lastname: Ayonayon
authors.affiliation: Department of Preventive Medicine, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN.
authors.forename: Suzanne
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Satterfield
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA.
authors.forename: Anne B
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Newman
authors.affiliation: Clinical Research Branch, National Institute on Aging, Baltimore, MD.
authors.forename: Eleanor M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Simonsick
mesh_terms: D001741:Black or African American / Q000523:psychology*; D017668:Age of Onset; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D001823:Body Composition; D003863:Depression / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000401:mortality; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010414:Pennsylvania / Q000453:epidemiology; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012075:Remission, Spontaneous; D017678:Sex Distribution; D013997:Time Factors; D044465:White People / Q000523:psychology*
keywords: Aging; depression; depressive symptoms; epidemiology; prospective studies; race differences