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Depression symptoms in late life assessed using the EURO–D scale

Effect of age, gender and marital status in 14 European centres

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

M. J. Prince ,
A. T. F. Beekman ,
D. J. H. Deeg ,
R. Fuhrer ,
S.-L. Kivela ,
B. A. Lawlor ,
A. Lobo ,
H. Magnusson ,
I. Meller  and
H. Van Oyen
...Show all authors
M. J. Prince*
Affiliation:
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London
A. T. F. Beekman
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands
D. J. H. Deeg
Affiliation:
Vrije Universiteit, De Boelelaan 1081C, 1081 Amsterdam, The Netherlands
R. Fuhrer
Affiliation:
Hôpital de la Salpetriere, 75652 Paris, Cedex 13, France
S.-L. Kivela
Affiliation:
Unit of General Practice PB5000, 90401 Oulu, Finland
B. A. Lawlor
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry of the Elderly, St James's Hospital, Dublin, Republic of Ireland
A. Lobo
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Hospital Clinico Universitario, Zaragoza, Spain
H. Magnusson
Affiliation:
Iceland
I. Meller
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Munich, Munich, Germany
H. Van Oyen
Affiliation:
Department of Epidemiology, Scientific Institute of Public Hearth, J. Wytsmanstraat 4, 1050 Brussels, Belgium
F. Reischies
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Universität Klinikum, Eschenallee 3, Berlin, Germany
M. Roelands
Affiliation:
Department of Behaviour Therapy and Counselling, University of Gent, B-9000 Gent, Belgium
I. Skoog
Affiliation:
413 45 Goteborg, Sweden
C. Turrina
Affiliation:
Breschia, Italy
J. R. M. Copeland
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Institute of Human Ageing, University of Liverpool, Liverpool
*
M. J. Prince, Epidemiological Unit, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Keppel Street, London WCIE 7HT
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Abstract

Background

Data from surveys involving 21 724 subjects aged ⩾65 years were analysed using a harmonised depression symptom scale, the EURO–D.

Aims

To describe and compare the effects of age, gender and mental status on depressive symptoms across Europe.

Method

We tested for the effects of centre, age, gender and marital status on EURO–D score. Between-centre variance was partitioned according to centre characteristics: region, religion and survey instrument used.

Results

EURO–D scores tended to increase with age, women scored higher than men, and widowed and separated subjects scored higher than others. The EURO–D scale could be reduced into two factors: affective suffering, responsible for the gender difference, and motivation, accounting for the positive association with age.

Conclusions

Large between-centre differences in depression symptoms were not explained by demography or by the depression measure used in the survey. Consistent, small effects of age, gender and marital status were observed across Europe. Depression may be overdiagnosed in older persons because of an increase in lack of motivation that may be affectively neutral, and is possibly related to cognitive decline.

Type
Eurodep Study
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 174 , Issue 4 , April 1999 , pp. 339 - 345
Copyright
Copyright © 1999 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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Footnotes

Declaration of interest

The European Commission BIOMEDI initiative funded this Concerted Action Programme.

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