TITLE:
Factors Affecting Clinical Depression in Diabetic Geriatric Population
AUTHORS:
Shailesh Jain, Bhavana Mocharla, Yulia Belopolsky, Jamal Islam
KEYWORDS:
Geriatric Depression, Diabetes Mellitus, Ethnicity, BMI
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Diabetes Mellitus,
Vol.5 No.4,
October
28,
2015
ABSTRACT: Introduction: Diabetes mellitus is a common metabolic disorder affecting
about 10% - 25% of the elderly population. The mechanisms, linking diabetes and
major depressive disorders are unknown. Obesity is the risk factor for both
diabetes mellitus and depression. The goal of this study was to explore if BMI
of elderly diabetic patients with depression differed from BMI of the diabetic individuals without depression. Further, we aimed
to explore the association of age, gender, health insurance status, ethnicity
influence and systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP)
with clinical depression in geriatric diabetics. Methods: Nursing home
residents were recruited from an outpatient internal medicine clinic in a
teaching university setting. After given written
consent, patients received Public Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) in either
English or Spanish language. Results: While the clinically depressed
diabetic participants did not differ from that of the non-depressed diabetic
participants with respect to age (70.6 ± 6.1 vs. 72.1 ± 4.8; p = 0.111), gender (47.2% of males vs.
57.1% of females; p = 0.754), or
ethnicity (69% explain vs. 71%, p = 1.000),
race did appear to differ in depression status: Caucasian, African-American,
and others were respectively 37%, 48%, and
15% vs. 32%, 16%, 52%, p = 0.0003).
Neither the BMI (p > 0.499) nor
Hemoglobin A1c (p > 0.839)
differed between the clinically depressed and non-depressed participants when
controlled for these race differences. Conclusion: In our sample, diabetic
African Americans are three times more likely to be depressed. Diabetic
Caucasians also experience higher rates of clinical depression. However,
diabetics with depression did not differ from diabetics without depression with
regard to their age, gender, BMI, HbA1C, health insurance status, systolic
blood pressure or diastolic blood pressure.