OBJECTIVE: To determine whether depressed older adults who attribute becoming depressed to "old age" rather than illness are more likely to believe it is not important to seek treatment for depression. DESIGN: Cross-sectional mailed survey. SETTING: Academically affiliated primary care physicians' network. PARTICIPANTS: Surveys were mailed to 588 patients age > or =65 years who were randomly identified from patient lists of 20 physicians. Surveys were returned by 429 patients (73%). Patients were eligible for this study if they scored > or =2 points on the 5-item Geriatric Depression Scale (n = 94) and were not missing key variables (final n = 90). MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Of the 90 depressed patients, 48 (53%) believed that feeling depressed was very important to discuss with a doctor. In unadjusted analysis, older adults who did not believe it is very important to discuss feeling depressed with a doctor were more likely to attribute becoming depressed to aging (41% vs 17%; P =.012). In a logistic regression model adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics, number of impairments in basic and instrumental activities of daily living, medical comorbidity, and physical (PCS-12) and mental (MCS-12) component summary scores from the Medical Outcomes Study Short-Form-12, depressed older adults who attributed depression to aging had a 4.3 times greater odds than those who attributed depression to illness to not believe it is very important to discuss depression with a doctor (odds ratio [OR], 4.3; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.3 to 14.5). CONCLUSIONS: Among older persons with depression, attributing feeling depressed to old age may be an important barrier to care seeking.
OBJECTIVE: To determine whether depressed older adults who attribute becoming depressed to "old age" rather than illness are more likely to believe it is not important to seek treatment for depression. DESIGN: Cross-sectional mailed survey. SETTING: Academically affiliated primary care physicians' network. PARTICIPANTS: Surveys were mailed to 588 patients age > or =65 years who were randomly identified from patient lists of 20 physicians. Surveys were returned by 429 patients (73%). Patients were eligible for this study if they scored > or =2 points on the 5-item Geriatric Depression Scale (n = 94) and were not missing key variables (final n = 90). MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Of the 90 depressed patients, 48 (53%) believed that feeling depressed was very important to discuss with a doctor. In unadjusted analysis, older adults who did not believe it is very important to discuss feeling depressed with a doctor were more likely to attribute becoming depressed to aging (41% vs 17%; P =.012). In a logistic regression model adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics, number of impairments in basic and instrumental activities of daily living, medical comorbidity, and physical (PCS-12) and mental (MCS-12) component summary scores from the Medical Outcomes Study Short-Form-12, depressed older adults who attributed depression to aging had a 4.3 times greater odds than those who attributed depression to illness to not believe it is very important to discuss depression with a doctor (odds ratio [OR], 4.3; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.3 to 14.5). CONCLUSIONS: Among older persons with depression, attributing feeling depressed to old age may be an important barrier to care seeking.
Authors: Jürgen Unützer; Wayne Katon; Christopher M Callahan; John W Williams; Enid Hunkeler; Linda Harpole; Marc Hoffing; Richard D Della Penna; Polly Hitchcock Noël; Elizabeth H B Lin; Patricia A Areán; Mark T Hegel; Lingqi Tang; Thomas R Belin; Sabine Oishi; Christopher Langston Journal: JAMA Date: 2002-12-11 Impact factor: 56.272
Authors: Dennis S Charney; Charles F Reynolds; Lydia Lewis; Barry D Lebowitz; Trey Sunderland; George S Alexopoulos; Dan G Blazer; Ira R Katz; Barnett S Meyers; Patricia A Arean; Soo Borson; Charlotte Brown; Martha L Bruce; Christopher M Callahan; Mary E Charlson; Yeates Conwell; Bruce N Cuthbert; D P Devanand; Mary Jo Gibson; Gary L Gottlieb; K Ranga Krishnan; Sally K Laden; Constantine G Lyketsos; Benoit H Mulsant; George Niederehe; Jason T Olin; David W Oslin; Jane Pearson; Trudy Persky; Bruce G Pollock; Susan Raetzman; Mildred Reynolds; Carl Salzman; Richard Schulz; Thomas L Schwenk; Edward Scolnick; Jurgen Unutzer; Myrna M Weissman; Robert C Young Journal: Arch Gen Psychiatry Date: 2003-07
Authors: Katherine A Kitchen; Christine L McKibbin; Thomas L Wykes; Aaron A Lee; Catherine P Carrico; Katelynn A McConnell Journal: Clin Gerontol Date: 2013 Impact factor: 2.619