The reciprocal relationship between depression and disability in low-income homebound older adults following tele-depression treatment.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: Research has shown ample evidence for reciprocity between depression and disability. We examined whether decreases in disability among low-income, homebound older adults who received brief depression treatments were mediated by improvement in depressive symptoms and vice versa and whether the mediation effects varied by treatment modality. METHODS: In a 3-arm randomized clinical trial, 277 low-income homebound individuals aged 50+ participated in behavioral activation tele-delivered by bachelor's-level lay counselors (Tele-BA), problem-solving therapy tele-delivered by licensed clinicians (Tele-PST), or telephone support calls (attention control). Depressive symptoms were assessed with the 24-item Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression and disability with the 12-item World Health Organization Disability Schedule 2.0. Along with mediation models, mediation was assessed controlling for autoregressive and contemporaneous effects. RESULTS: Mediation models showed evidence of postintervention disability and depression mediating each other in separate mediation models. In the cross-lagged model, in which autoregressive and contemporaneous effects were included, only the depression-to-disability path exhibited mediation. There was no evidence of difference between Tele-BA and Tele-PST. Although the temporal precedence of treatment conditions on the outcomes is apparent, we could not establish a temporal precedence between disability and depression as these two measures exhibited parallel improvement. CONCLUSIONS: Brief depression treatments for low-income homebound older adults were effective in reducing both depression and disability among these disabled older adults. The importance of this study lies in the comparable effects of Tele-BA and Tele-PST. Lay-counselor model is a promising alternative to clinician-delivered psychotherapy for growing numbers of homebound older adults.