Spousal Associations Between Frailty and Depressive Symptoms: Longitudinal Findings from the Cardiovascular Health Study.
OBJECTIVE
To determine whether older adult spouses' frailty states and depressive symptoms are interrelated over time.


METHODS
Longitudinal, dyadic path analysis using the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model.


METHODS
Data were from baseline (1989-90), Wave 3 (1992-93), and Wave 7 (1996-97), all waves in which frailty and depressive symptoms were measured, of the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS), a multisite, longitudinal, observational study of risk factors for cardiovascular disease in adults aged 65 and older.


METHODS
Spouses in 1,260 community-dwelling married couples.


METHODS
Frailty was measured using the CHS criteria, categorized as nonfrail, prefrail, or frail. Depressive symptoms were measured using the 10-item Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale.


RESULTS
Within individuals (actor effects), greater frailty predicted greater subsequent depressive symptoms, and greater depressive symptoms predicted greater subsequent frailty. Between spouses (partner effects), an individual's greater frailty predicted the spouse's greater frailty, and an individual's greater depressive symptoms predicted the spouse's greater depressive symptoms.


CONCLUSIONS
Frailty and depressive symptoms are interrelated in older adult spouses. For older couples, interventions to prevent or treat frailty and depression that focus on couples may be more effective than those that focus on individuals.
Social and Behavioral Sciences, Chronic Disease Epidemiology, School of Public Health, New Haven, Connecticut.
Joan
J
Monin
Social and Behavioral Sciences, Chronic Disease Epidemiology, School of Public Health, New Haven, Connecticut.
Margaret
M
Doyle
Social and Behavioral Sciences, Chronic Disease Epidemiology, School of Public Health, New Haven, Connecticut.
Becca
B
Levy
University Center for Social and Urban Research, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Richard
R
Schulz
Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut.|Clinical Epidemiology Research Center, Veterans Affairs Connecticut Healthcare System, West Haven, Connecticut.
Terri
T
Fried
Social and Behavioral Sciences, Chronic Disease Epidemiology, School of Public Health, New Haven, Connecticut.
Trace
T
Kershaw
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology; D003863:Depression / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D016330:Frail Elderly; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D012307:Risk Factors; D018454:Spouses; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology
depression; dyadic analysis; frailty