Citation

Wei J, Ying M, Xie L, Chandrasekar EK, Lu H, Wang T, Li C. J. Psychiatr. Res. 2019; 111: 30-35.

Affiliation

Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, College of Public Health, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.jpsychires.2019.01.012

PMID

30660811

Abstract

Discrepancies exist on the associations of late-life depression with cognition, and synergistic effect of depression and diabetes on cognition among older adults was suggested in literature. We aimed to examine the associations of late-life depression with cognitive function in a representative sample of older adults in the U.S., and to examine the associations among individuals with diabetes. A total of 3101 adults aged 60 and above of the 2011-2014 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey who completed measurements of depressive symptoms and diabetes were included in cross-sectional analyses. The 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) was used to measure depressive symptoms (including overall, somatic and cognitive). Clinically relevant depression (CRD) and clinically significant depression (CSD) were defined by cutoffs of PHQ-9. Domain-specific cognitive function was examined using Delayed Word Recall Test, Digit Symbol Substitution Test, and Animal Fluency Test for memory, executive function/processing speed, and language, respectively. Z scores were created for overall cognition and specific domains. Multivariable linear regression models were applied to examine the association of depressive symptoms and scale-defined depression with cognition z scores. The overall, somatic and cognitive depressive symptoms were associated with lower cognitive function among older adults. Both CRD (β = -0.20, 95% CI: -0.28, -0.12) and CSD (β = -0.56, 95% CI: -0.75, -0.37) were associated with lower cognition. A synergistic relationship was found between depression and diabetes on lower cognition. These results suggested that cognition among older adults may be modified by late-life depression, and older adults with both depression and diabetes may be particularly impacted on cognition.

Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Language: en

Keywords

Cognitive function; Depression; Depressive symptoms; Older adults