Medical morbidity and severity of depression in a large primary care sample of older Australians: the DEPS‐GP project

作者：Jon J. Pfaff, Brian Draper, Jane Pirkis, Nigel Stocks, John A Snowdon, Moira Sim, Gerard J. Byrne, Nicola T. Lautenschlager, Leon A Flicker, Ngaire M Kerse, Robert D. Goldney, Osvaldo P. Almeida · 发表于：The Medical Journal of Australia · 年份：2009 · DOI：10.5694/j.1326-5377.2009.tb02475.x · 被引用次数：34 · 研究领域：Mental Health Treatment and Access、Cardiac Health and Mental Health、Chronic Disease Management Strategies

OBJECTIVES: To estimate the prevalence of depression among older Australians with common medical morbidities, and to determine the association between poor physical health and depression in this age group. DESIGN: Cross-sectional, postal questionnaire survey. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: 20 183 community-dwelling adults aged 60 years and over, under the care of 383 general practitioners participating in the Depression and Early Prevention of Suicide in General Practice (DEPS-GP) project (conducted between 2005 and 2008; the data in this article were collected during the baseline phase of the study in 2005). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Depressive symptoms (measured by the nine-item depression scale of the Patient Health Questionnaire), health status (measured by the 12-item Short Form Health Survey and a medical morbidity inventory), social support (measured by the subjective support subscale from the Duke Social Support Index), and demographic and lifestyle information. RESULTS: 18 190 participants (90.1%) reported having at least one chronic physical health condition, while 1493 (7.1%) experienced clinically significant depression (3.1% major depressive syndrome; 4.0% other depressive syndrome). Most chronic physical illnesses were associated with increased odds of depression, and participants with numerous medical morbidities and a high level of functional impairment were three to four times more likely to have a depressive illness. CONCLUSIONS: Depression is more the exception tha...