title: Depressive symptoms in institutionalized older adults.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To estimate the prevalence of depressive symptoms among institutionalized elderly individuals and to analyze factors associated with this condition.
  
  
  METHODS
  This was a cross-sectional study involving 462 individuals aged 60 or older, residents in long stay institutions in four Brazilian municipalities. The dependent variable was assessed using the 15-item Geriatric Depression Scale. Poisson's regression was used to evaluate associations with co-variables. We investigated which variables were most relevant in terms of presence of depressive symptoms within the studied context through factor analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Prevalence of depressive symptoms was 48.7%. The variables associated with depressive symptoms were: regular/bad/very bad self-rated health; comorbidities; hospitalizations; and lack of friends in the institution. Five components accounted for 49.2% of total variance of the sample: functioning, social support, sensory deficiency, institutionalization and health conditions. In the factor analysis, functionality and social support were the components which explained a large part of observed variance.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A high prevalence of depressive symptoms, with significant variation in distribution, was observed. Such results emphasize the importance of health conditions and functioning for institutionalized older individuals developing depression. They also point to the importance of providing opportunities for interaction among institutionalized individuals.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Fonoaudiologia, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil.
authors.forename: Lívia Maria
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Santiago
authors.affiliation: epartamento de Epidemiologia e Métodos Quantitativos em Saúd, Escola Nacional de Saúde Pública, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil.
authors.forename: Inês Echenique
authors.initials: IE
authors.lastname: Mattos
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003863:Depression / Q000453:epidemiology*; D004812:Epidemiologic Methods; D006801:Humans; D007326:Institutionalization; D008875:Middle Aged; D012307:Risk Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors