Prevalence of pain and its associated factors among the oldest-olds in different care settings - results of the AgeQualiDe study.

BACKGROUND: The prevalence of pain is very common in the oldest age group. Managing pain successfully is a key topic in primary care, especially within the ageing population. Different care settings might have an impact on the prevalence of pain and everyday life. METHODS: Participants from the German longitudinal cohort study on Needs, Health Service Use, Costs and Health-related Quality of Life in a large Sample of Oldest-old Primary Care Patients (85+) (AgeQualiDe) were asked to rate their severity of pain as well as the impairment with daily activities. Besides gender, age, education, BMI and use of analgesics we focused on the current housing situation and on cognitive state. Associations of the dependent measures were tested using four ordinal logistic regression models. Model 1 and 4 consisted of the overall sample, model 2 and 3 were divided according to no cognitive impairment (NCI) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI). RESULTS: Results show a decline in pain at very old age but nonetheless a high prevalence among the 85+ year olds. Sixty-three per cent of the participants report mild to severe pain and 69% of the participants mild to extreme impairment due to pain with daily activities. Use of analgesics, depression and living at home with care support are significantly associated with higher and male gender with lower pain ratings. CONCLUSIONS: Sufficient pain management among the oldest age group is inevitable. Outpatient care settings are at risk of overlooking pain. Therefore focus should be set on pain management in these settings.

The impact of social engagement on health-related quality of life and depressive symptoms in old age - evidence from a multicenter prospective cohort study in Germany.

BACKGROUND: Thus far, only a few longitudinal studies investigated the impact of social engagement on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and depressive symptoms in old age. Therefore, we aimed to examine the impact of social engagement on HRQoL and depressive symptoms in late life. METHODS: Individuals aged 75 years and over at baseline were interviewed every 1.5 years in a multicenter prospective cohort study in Germany. While HRQoL was quantified by using the Visual Analogue Scale (EQ VAS) of the EQ-5D instrument, depressive symptoms was assessed by using the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS). Individuals reported the frequency ("never" to "every day") of social engagement (e.g., engagement in the church, as a volunteer, in a party, or in a club) in the last four weeks. Fixed effects regressions were used to estimate the effect of social engagement on the outcome variables. RESULTS: After adjusting for age, marital status, functional status and chronic diseases, fixed effects regressions revealed that the onset of social engagement markedly increased HRQoL and considerably decreased depressive symptoms in the total sample and in women, but not men. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings corroborate the relevance of social engagement for HRQoL and depressive symptoms in old age. Encouraging the individuals to start, maintain and expand social engagement in late life might help to maintain and improve HRQoL and decrease depressive symptoms.

Satisfaction with general practice care in German patients with multimorbidity: a cross-sectional study.

Background: Little is known about the quality of general practice care received by patients suffering from multimorbidity. Objectives: To assess how patients with multimorbidity evaluate their General Practitioners (GPs') performance and to identify factors associated with high patient satisfaction levels. Methods: Cross-sectional study in Germany using the EUROPEP questionnaire consisting of 23 items with a five-point Likert scale and covering two dimensions: clinical performance of the GP and organisation of care. Mixed logistic regression was used in the analysis, with the EUROPEP score as a dependent variable. Results: The study included 651 patients (54.8% female), with a mean age of 73.7 ± 4.9 years. Of 22 of 23 questionnaire items, >80% of patients rated their satisfaction as 'good' or 'excellent'. The highest level of satisfaction (excellent) varied among items between 28.0 and 73.1%. Lower age and female sex of GPs were associated with better patient evaluations in 15 and 12 of the 23 items, respectively. Patient characteristics were not associated with their satisfaction with their GP. Conclusions: This study found high levels of satisfaction with primary care in patients with multimorbidity. However, since high levels of patient satisfaction are not necessarily equivalent to high quality of care, a broader view is necessary to integrate the subjective views of patients and objective quality indicators into a comprehensive concept of good quality of care.

Which types of mental work demands may be associated with reduced risk of dementia?

INTRODUCTION: Previous studies have demonstrated that an overall high level of mental work demands decreased dementia risk. In our study, we investigated whether this effect is driven by specific mental work demands and whether it is exposure dependent. METHODS: Patients aged 75+ years were recruited from general practitioners and participated in up to seven assessment waves (every 1.5 years) of the longitudinal AgeCoDe study. Analyses of the impact of specific mental work demands on dementia risk were carried out via multivariate regression modeling (n = 2315). RESULTS: We observed a significantly lower dementia risk in individuals with a higher level of "information processing" (HR, 0.888), "pattern detection" (HR, 0.878), "mathematics" (HR, 0.878), and "creativity" (HR, 0.878). Yet, exposure-dependent effects were only significant for "information processing" and "pattern detection." DISCUSSION: Our longitudinal observations suggest that dementia risk may be reduced by some but not all types of mental work demands.

Longitudinal predictors of informal and formal caregiving time in community-dwelling dementia patients.

PURPOSE: Care provided in the community for dementia patients on an individual basis may be very time consuming. Yet, little is known about the factors affecting caregiving time for community-dwelling dementia patients. Thus, we aimed to investigate the predictors of informal and formal caregiving time for these patients in a longitudinal approach. METHOD: Caregiving time for n = 126 community-dwelling dementia patients was assessed by proxy interviews in four assessments at 6-month intervals (1.5 years of longitudinal follow-up; AgeCoDe study). Measurement of informal caregiving time was based on a German adaptation of the Resource Utilization in Dementia questionnaire. Dementia severity was measured by the Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR). We used random effects models to estimate the effects of sociodemographic variables (age, gender, marital status and education), comorbidity and dementia severity on informal and formal caregiving time. RESULTS: At the first assessment, mean age was 85.0 years (±3.2 years). The majority of patients was female (65.9 %), not married (divorced, single, widowed: 55.6 %) and had primary education (63.5 %). Furthermore, mean GDS was 4.4 (±0.8) and mean MMSE was 20.1 (±5.1). According to CDR, 43 individuals had very mild dementia, 55 individuals had mild dementia and 28 individuals had moderate/severe dementia. Moreover, mean total caregiving time was 3.4 h per day (±4.0). Thereof the main part represents informal caregiving time (2.3 h ± 3.4), whereas formal caregiving time was 1.2 h (±2.4). Dementia severity was associated with total caregiving time, mainly influenced by informal caregiving time. Age was positively associated with total caregiving time, driven by formal caregiving time, while being married was positively associated with total caregiving time, mainly affected by informal caregiving time. All need categories of informal caregiving time were strongly related to dementia severity, whereas none of the categories of formal caregiving time were related to dementia severity. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings extend previous studies that found an association between informal caregiving time and dementia severity. Moreover, our findings highlight the role of informal care for community-dwelling dementia patients in Germany. Informal caregiving time strongly increases with dementia severity. Consequently, as the number of patients suffering from dementia is expected to increase considerably in the next decades, there is a paramount need to strengthen the informal care system to meet patients' needs.

Risk of dementia in elderly patients with the use of proton pump inhibitors.

Drugs that modify the risk of dementia in the elderly are of potential interest for dementia prevention. Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) are widely used to reduce gastric acid production, but information on the risk of dementia is lacking. We assessed association between the use of PPIs and the risk of dementia in elderly people. Data were derived from a longitudinal, multicenter cohort study in elderly primary care patients, the German Study on Aging, Cognition and Dementia in Primary Care Patients (AgeCoDe), including 3,327 community-dwelling persons aged ≥ 75 years. From follow-up 1 to follow-up 4 (follow-up interval 18 months), we identified a total of 431 patients with incident any dementia, including 260 patients with Alzheimer's disease. We used time-dependent Cox regression to estimate hazard ratios of incident any dementia and Alzheimer's disease. Potential confounders included in the analysis comprised age, sex, education, the Apolipoprotein E4 (ApoE4) allele status, polypharmacy, and the comorbidities depression, diabetes, ischemic heart disease, and stroke. Patients receiving PPI medication had a significantly increased risk of any dementia [Hazard ratio (HR) 1.38, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.04-1.83] and Alzheimer's disease (HR 1.44, 95% CI 1.01-2.06) compared with nonusers. Due to the major burden of dementia on public health and the lack of curative medication, this finding is of high interest to research on dementia and provides indication for dementia prevention.

Complex coevolution of depression and health-related quality of life in old age.

PURPOSE: To investigate the coevolution of depression and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in old age. METHODS: In a representative survey of the German general population aged 75 years and older, the course of HRQoL and depression was observed over 4.5 years (3 waves). HRQoL was assessed by the Visual Analogue Scale (EQ VAS) of the EQ-5D instrument, while the Geriatric Depression Scale was used to measure depression. A panel vector autoregressive model was used to account for the complex coevolution of depression and HRQoL. Unobserved heterogeneity was taken into account by taking the first differences. RESULTS: We revealed a robust negative association between an initial change in HRQoL and a subsequent change in depression score, with substantial sex differences: In women there was a robust association, while in men the significance of this association depended on the model specification. Surprisingly, in the total sample and in both sexes, no robust association between an initial increase in depression and a subsequent change in HRQoL was found. CONCLUSION: Findings indicate that the direction of evolution from HRQoL to depression deserves more attention. Furthermore, treatment of depression in late life should aim at improving HRQoL in which remission of depressive symptoms is necessary but not sufficient.

Prevalence and determinants of overweight and obesity in old age in Germany.

BACKGROUND: Mean body weight gradually increases with age. Yet, little data exists on the prevalence of excess weight in populations aged 80 years or older. Moreover, little is known about predictors of overweight and obesity in old age. Thus, the purpose of this study was: To present data on the prevalence of excess weight in old age in Germany, to investigate predictors of excess weight in a cross-sectional approach and to examine factors affecting excess weight in a longitudinal approach. METHODS: Subjects consisted of 1,882 individuals aged 79 years or older. The course of excess weight was observed over 3 years. Excess weight was defined as follows: Overweight (25 kg/m(2) ≤ BMI < 30 kg/m(2)) and obesity (BMI ≥ 30 kg/m(2)). We used fixed effects regressions to estimate effects of time dependent variables on BMI, and overweight or obesity, respectively. RESULTS: The majority was overweight (40.0%) or obese (13.7%). Cross-sectional regressions revealed that BMI was positively associated with younger age, severe walking impairments and negatively associated with cognitive impairments. Excess weight was positively associated with younger age, elementary education, walking impairments and physical inactivity, while excess weight was negatively associated with cognitive impairment. Longitudinal regressions showed that age and severely impaired walking disabilities reduced BMI. The probability of transitions to excess weight decreased considerably with older age and occurrence of severe walking impairments (overweight). CONCLUSIONS: Marked differences between predictors in cross- and longitudinal setting exist, underlining the complex nature of excess weight in old age.

Activating GENeral practitioners dialogue with patients on their Agenda (MultiCare AGENDA) study protocol for a cluster randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: This study investigates the efficacy of a complex multifaceted intervention aiming at increasing the quality of care of GPs for patients with multimorbidity. In its core, the intervention aims at enhancing the doctor-patient-dialogue and identifying the patient's agenda and needs. Also, a medication check is embedded. Our primary hypothesis is that a more patient-centred communication will reduce the number of active pharmaceuticals taken without impairing the patients' quality of life. Secondary hypotheses include a better knowledge of GPs about their patients' medication, a higher patient satisfaction and a more effective and/or efficient health care utilization. METHODS/DESIGN: Multi-center, parallel group, cluster randomized controlled clinical trial in GP surgeries. INCLUSION CRITERIA: Patients aged 65-84 years with at least 3 chronic conditions. INTERVENTION: GPs allocated to this group will receive a multifaceted educational intervention on performing a narrative doctor-patient dialogue reflecting treatment targets and priorities of the patient and on performing a narrative patient-centred medication review. During the one year intervention GPs will have a total of three conversations à 30 minutes with the enrolled patients. CONTROL: Care as usual. Follow-up per patient: 14 months after baseline interview. Primary efficacy endpoints: Differences in medication intake and health related quality of life between baseline and follow-up in the intervention compared to the control group. Randomization: Computer-generated by an independent institute. It will be performed successively when patient recruitment in the respective surgery is finished. Blinding: Participants (GPs and patients) will not be blinded to their assignment but will be unaware of the study hypotheses or outcome measures. DISCUSSION: There is growing evidence that the phenomenon of polypharmacy and low quality of drug use is substantially due to mis-communication (or non-communication) in the doctor patient interaction. We assume that the number of pharmaceutical agents taken can be reduced by a communicational intervention and that this will not impair the patients' health-related quality of life. Improving communication is a core issue of future interventions, especially for patients with multimorbidity. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Current CONTROLled Trials ISRCTN46272088.

Narrative medicine-based intervention in primary care to reduce polypharmacy: results from the cluster-randomised controlled trial MultiCare AGENDA.

OBJECTIVES: To determine if patient-centred communication leads to a reduction of the number of medications taken without reducing health-related quality of life. DESIGN: Two-arm cluster-randomised controlled trial. SETTING: 55 primary care practices in Hamburg, Düsseldorf and Rostock, Germany. PARTICIPANTS: 604 patients 65 to 84 years of age with at least three chronic conditions. INTERVENTIONS: Within the 12-month intervention, general practitioners (GPs) had three 30 min talks with each of their patients in addition to routine consultations. The first talk aimed at identifying treatment targets and priorities of the patient. During the second talk, the medication taken by the patient was discussed based on a 'brown bag' review of all the medications the patient had at home. The third talk served to discuss goal attainment and future treatment targets. GPs in the control group performed care as usual. PRIMARY OUTCOME MEASURES: We assumed that the number of medications taken by the patient would be reduced by 1.5 substances in the intervention group and that the change in the intervention group's health-related quality of life would not be statistically significantly inferior to the control group. RESULTS: The patients took a mean of 7.0±3.5 medications at baseline and 6.8±3.5 medications at follow-up. There was no difference between treatment and control group in the change of the number of medications taken (0.43; 95% CI -0.07 to 0.93; P=0.094) and no difference in health-related quality of life (0.03; -0.02 to 0.08; P=0.207). The likelihood of receiving a new prescription for analgesics was twice as high in the intervention group compared with the control group (risk ratio, 2.043; P=0.019), but the days spent in hospital were reduced by the intervention (-3.07; -5.25 to -0.89; P=0.006). CONCLUSIONS: Intensifying the doctor-patient dialogue and discussing the patient's agenda and personal needs did not lead to a reduction of medication intake and did not alter health-related quality of life. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: ISRCTN46272088; Pre-results.

[Health Insurance in Old Age and Differences in Cognition, Depressive Symptoms and Health-Related Quality of Life]. / Unterschiede in Kognition, Depressivität und gesundheitsbezogener Lebensqualität zwischen Versicherten der GKV und PKV im hohen Alter.

OBJECTIVE: We aimed at identifying differences regarding cognition, depressive symptoms and health-related quality of life between members of private and statutory health insurance (SHI) in very old age in Germany. METHODS: Cross-sectional data were gathered from the multicenter prospective "Study on Needs, health service use, costs and health-related quality of life in a large sample of oldest-old primary care patients (85+)" (AgeQualiDe), covering primary care patients aged ≥ 85 years (n = 854; with 773 members of SHI). The Global Deterioration Scale measured cognition, the Geriatric Depression Scale assessed depressive symptoms, and health-related quality of life was measured by using a Visual Analogue Scale (EQ-VAS). RESULTS: While members of private health insurance showed slightly better cognitive function, less depressive symptoms and better health-related quality of life descriptively, regression models showed that none of these differences was statistically significant. CONCLUSIONS: There are no differences between members of private health insurance and SHI regarding cognitive function, depressive symptoms and health-related quality of life in very old age.

Collaborative nurse-led self-management support for primary care patients with anxiety, depressive or somatic symptoms: Cluster-randomised controlled trial (findings of the SMADS study).

BACKGROUND: Collaborative, nurse-led care is a well-established model of ambulatory care in many healthcare systems. Nurses play a key role in managing patients' conditions as well as in enhancing symptom- and self-management skills. OBJECTIVE: The SMADS trial evaluated the effectiveness of a primary care-based, nurse-led, complex intervention to promote self-management in patients with anxiety, depressive or somatic symptoms. Change in self-efficacy 12 months post baseline was used as the primary outcome. DESIGN: The SMADS trial set up a two-arm, cluster randomised controlled trial in the city of Hamburg, a large metropolitan area in the North West of Germany. SETTING: We randomly allocated participating primary care practices to either the intervention group (IG), implementing a nurse-led collaborative care model, or to the control group (CG), where patients with the above psychosomatic symptoms received routine treatment. PARTICIPANTS: Patients from 18 to 65 years of age, regularly consulting a participating primary care practice, scoring≥5 on the anxiety, depressive or somatic symptom scales of the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-D), German version. METHODS: A mixed model regression approach was used to analyse the outcome data. Analyses were based on the intention-to-treat population: All enrolled patients were analysed at their follow-up. Additionally, we reported results as effect sizes. The robustness of the results was investigated by performing an observed cases analysis. RESULTS: 325 participants (IG N=134, CG N=191) from ten practices in each study arm consented to take part and completed a baseline assessment. The mean group difference (ITT-LOCF, IG vs. CG) in self-efficacy at the post baseline follow-up (median 406days) was 1.65 points (95% CI 0.50-2.8) in favour of IG (p=0.004). This amounts to a small Cohen's d effect size of 0.33. An observed cases analysis (168 participants, IG=56, CG=105) resulted in a mean difference of 3.13 (95% CI 1.07-5.18, p=0.003) between the groups, amounting to a moderate effect size of d=0.51. CONCLUSION: A complex, nurse-led intervention, implemented as a collaborative care model, increased perceived self-efficacy in patients with symptoms of anxiety, depression or somatisation compare to control patients. For the first time in the German healthcare system, the SMADS trial validated the belief that a nurse can successfully complement the work of a general practitioner - particularly in supporting self-management of patients with psychosomatic symptoms and their psychosocial needs.

Differential Risk of Incident Alzheimer's Disease Dementia in Stable Versus Unstable Patterns of Subjective Cognitive Decline.

BACKGROUND: It is unknown whether longitudinal stability versus instability in subjective cognitive decline (SCD) is a modifying factor of the association between SCD and risk of incident Alzheimer's disease (AD) dementia. OBJECTIVE: We tested the modifying role of temporal stability of the SCD report on AD dementia risk in cognitively normal elderly individuals. METHODS: We analyzed data of 1,990 cognitively normal participants from the longitudinal AgeCoDe Study. We assessed SCD with/without associated worries both at baseline and first follow-up 18 months later. Participants were then classified either as (a) Controls (CO, with no SCD at both baseline and follow-up 1, n = 613), (b) inconsistent SCD (with SCD reported only at baseline or at follow-up 1, n = 637), (c) consistent SCD but without/or with inconsistent worries (n = 610) or (d) consistent SCD with worries (n = 130). We estimated incident AD dementia risk over up to 6 years for each group with Cox-Proportional Hazard Regression analyses adjusted for age, gender, education, ApoE4 status, and depression. RESULTS: Compared to CO, inconsistent SCD was not associated with increased risk of incident AD dementia. In contrast, risk was doubled in the group of consistent SCD without/ with inconsistent worries, and almost 4-fold in the group of consistent SCD with worries. These results could be replicated when using follow-up 1 to follow-up 2 response patterns for group definition. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that longitudinal stability versus instability is an important modifying factor of the association between SCD and AD dementia risk. Worrisome SCD that is also consistently reported over time is associated with greatly increased risk of AD dementia.

Incident Subjective Cognitive Decline Does Not Predict Mortality in the Elderly--Results from the Longitudinal German Study on Ageing, Cognition, and Dementia (AgeCoDe).

OBJECTIVE: Subjective cognitive decline (SCD) might represent the first symptomatic representation of Alzheimer's disease (AD), which is associated with increased mortality. Only few studies, however, have analyzed the association of SCD and mortality, and if so, based on prevalent cases. Thus, we investigated incident SCD in memory and mortality. METHODS: Data were derived from the German AgeCoDe study, a prospective longitudinal study on the epidemiology of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia in primary care patients over 75 years covering an observation period of 7.5 years. We used univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses to examine the relationship of SCD and mortality. Further, we estimated survival times by the Kaplan Meier method and case-fatality rates with regard to SCD. RESULTS: Among 971 individuals without objective cognitive impairment, 233 (24.0%) incidentally expressed SCD at follow-up I. Incident SCD was not significantly associated with increased mortality in the univariate (HR = 1.0, 95% confidence interval = 0.8-1.3, p = .90) as well as in the multivariate analysis (HR = 0.9, 95% confidence interval = 0.7-1.2, p = .40). The same applied for SCD in relation to concerns. Mean survival time with SCD was 8.0 years (SD = 0.1) after onset. CONCLUSION: Incident SCD in memory in individuals with unimpaired cognitive performance does not predict mortality. The main reason might be that SCD does not ultimately lead into future cognitive decline in any case. However, as prevalence studies suggest, subjectively perceived decline in non-memory cognitive domains might be associated with increased mortality. Future studies may address mortality in such other cognitive domains of SCD in incident cases.

[Promoting Self-Management in Primary Care - the Association of Motivation for Change, Self-Efficacy and Psychological Distress Prior to the Onset of Intervention]. / Selbstmanagementförderung in der hausärztlichen Versorgung - der Zusammenhang zwischen Veränderungsmotivation, Selbstwirksamkeit und psychischer Belastung vor Beginn der Intervention.

Anxiety, depressive and somatoform disorders are highly prevalent in primary care. Managing these disorders is time-consuming and requires strong commitment on behalf of the general practitioners (GPs). Furthermore, the resources for the management of these patients are limited by the increasing workload in primary care practices, especially in the German health care system. In order to address the SMADS-study within psychenet - the Hamburg Network for Mental Health (NCT01726387) implements and evaluates a complex, low-threshold, nurse-led intervention using a goal-oriented set of case management and counseling techniques to promote self-management in these patients. This paper investigates the association of the patients' motivation for change and their perceived self-efficacy, the primary outcome - to get to know whether the intervention will target the appropriate population.

Cognitive performance before and after the onset of subjective cognitive decline in old age.

BACKGROUND: Our objectives were (1) to test the association between the report of subjective cognitive decline (SCD) and prospective objective cognitive performance in high age individuals and (2) to study the course of longitudinal cognitive performance before and after the first report of SCD. METHODS: Cognitively normal elderly participants of the German Study on Ageing, Cognition, and Dementia study (N = 2330) with SCD (subjective decline in memory with and without associated concerns) and without SCD at baseline were assessed over 8 years with regard to immediate and delayed verbal recall, verbal fluency, working memory, and global cognition. Baseline performance and cognitive trajectories were compared between groups. In addition, cognitive trajectories before and after the initial report of SCD (incident SCD) were modelled in those without SCD at baseline. RESULTS: Baseline performance in the SCD group was lower and declined more steeply in immediate and delayed verbal recall than in the control group (no SCD at baseline). This effect was more pronounced in the SCD group with concerns. Incident SCD was preceded by decline in immediate and delayed memory and word fluency. CONCLUSIONS: SCD predicts future memory decline. Incident SCD is related to previous cognitive decline. The latter finding supports the concept of SCD indicating first subtle decline in cognitive performance that characterizes preclinical Alzheimer's disease.

Associations between Dementia Outcomes and Depressive Symptoms, Leisure Activities, and Social Support.

BACKGROUND: Social relations and depressive symptoms are intertwined. They both predict subsequent dementia, but only few studies on the association between social life aspects and subsequent dementia exist. METHODS: The risk of subsequent dementia was estimated over 2 follow-up assessments, each 18 months apart, depending on leisure activity, social support (general scale and the 3 factors emotional support, practical support, and social integration), and depressive symptoms, using proportional hazard models in a cohort of elderly patients (n = 2,300, with a mean age of 82.45 years) recruited for the study by their general practitioners. RESULTS: Higher depressive symptoms and lower cognitive and physical activity were associated with an increased risk of subsequent all-cause dementia and Alzheimer's dementia (AD). While neither social engagement nor the general social support scale was associated with subsequent dementia, a higher level of social integration was associated with a lower dementia risk. In combined models, the results for activity variables remained similar, but the strength of the association between depressive symptoms and the subsequent risk of dementia decreased, and the association with social integration disappeared. CONCLUSIONS: Depressive symptoms increased and activity variables decreased the risk of subsequent dementia; however, activity variables, namely cognitive and physical activity, partly mediated the effect of depressive symptoms on the subsequent risk of all-cause dementia and AD. In many cases, social support was not associated with a risk of subsequent dementia.

The role of spousal loss in the development of depressive symptoms in the elderly - implications for diagnostic systems.

BACKGROUND: In the revised version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) the Mood Disorder Workgroup for DSM-V the bereavement exclusion criterion for the diagnosis of major depression has been eliminated. AIM: To investigate the impact of bereavement on the incidence of depression and depressive symptoms in the elderly. METHOD: Participants over 75 years from the longitudinal German Study on Ageing, Cognition, and Dementia in Primary Care Patients (AgeCoDe) that were still married at baseline were investigated (n=1,193). Data from four follow-ups (time frame: 6 years) were investigated. The response rate at baseline was 50.3%. Three clinical endpoints were analyzed: depressive symptoms according to Geriatric Depression Scale (1) GDS≥6, (2) GDS≥10, and (3) Major Depression (MD). The effect of loss was investigated using random-effects regression models. RESULTS: Experiencing a loss of spouse was predictive of a higher incidence in GDS≥6 (OR 4.52, 95% CI 2.6-7.9) and 10 (OR 5.59, 95% CI 1.8-17.0) even after adjusting for age, gender, impairment at baseline, and GDS score at baseline. Associations with MD were not significant (OR 1.77, 96% CI 0.9-3.5). CONCLUSIONS: Older adults experiencing the loss of their spouse are more likely to display elevated levels of depressive symptoms, that may reach a concerning level of severity.