The Relationship between Late-Life Depression and Resilience

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between late-life depression and resilience in the Korean community-dwelling elderly with depression. METHODS: The subjects were 102 depressed elderly people who lived in Suwon and Gwangju, Korea. Each subject was administered the questionnaires regarding the socio-demographic characteristics, Korean version of the Mini-Mental State Examination for Dementia Screening (MMSE-DS), Brief Resilience Scale (BRS), and Short Form Geriatric Depression Scale-Korean version (SGDS-K). RESULTS: In a cross-sectional aspect, BRS score were negatively correlated with SGDS-K score in the Pearson's correlation test (r=-0.301, p=0.002). After multivariable adjustments, linear mixed model analysis showed that subjects with baseline higher BRS score had significantly lesser SGDS-K score (β=-0.16, p=0.006). CONCLUSION: The level of resilience should be considered in predicting the change of depressive symptoms in the elderly.