PMID- 9089825
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 19970627
LR  - 20190826
IS  - 0033-2917 (Print)
IS  - 0033-2917 (Linking)
VI  - 27
IP  - 2
DP  - 1997 Mar
TI  - Social support deficits, loneliness and life events as risk factors for 
      depression in old age. The Gospel Oak Project VI.
PG  - 323-32
AB  - BACKGROUND: A companion paper reported a very strong cross-sectional association 
      between handicap and late-life depression. Adjusting for handicap weakened 
      associations between sociodemographic variables and depression. It was unclear 
      whether handicap was a confounder, or a useful summary variable, mediating the 
      effect of a range of sociodemographic disadvantages. This paper focuses on the 
      cross-sectional relationship between depression and demographic variables, social 
      support, and life events. METHOD: A community survey of all residents over the 
      age of 65 years of an electoral district in London, UK. RESULTS: There was a 
      moderate association between SHORT-CARE pervasive depression and the number of 
      life events experienced over the previous year. Personal illness, bereavement and 
      theft were the most salient events. There was a stronger, graded, relationship 
      between the number of social support deficits (SSDs) and depression. Number of 
      SSDs also related to age, handicap, loneliness and use of homecare services. 
      Loneliness was itself strongly associated with depression; odds ratio 12.4 
      (7.6-20.0). CONCLUSIONS: Problems of collinearity, and the cross-sectional design 
      of the study limited interpretation of the exact nature of the relationship 
      between social support, loneliness, handicap and depression. However, the 
      clustering of these four factors can be used to define a large part of the 
      elderly population with a poor quality of life. An important avenue for future 
      research will be the development and implementation of population intervention 
      strategies designed to address some or all of these problems among older people 
      in general.
FAU - Prince, M J
AU  - Prince MJ
AD  - Institute of Psychiatry, Royal Free Hospital, London.
FAU - Harwood, R H
AU  - Harwood RH
FAU - Blizard, R A
AU  - Blizard RA
FAU - Thomas, A
AU  - Thomas A
FAU - Mann, A H
AU  - Mann AH
LA  - eng
GR  - Wellcome Trust/United Kingdom
PT  - Journal Article
PT  - Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
PL  - England
TA  - Psychol Med
JT  - Psychological medicine
JID - 1254142
SB  - IM
MH  - Aged
MH  - Aged, 80 and over
MH  - Cluster Analysis
MH  - Cross-Sectional Studies
MH  - Depressive Disorder/diagnosis/epidemiology/*psychology
MH  - Disabled Persons/*psychology
MH  - Frail Elderly/*psychology
MH  - Humans
MH  - *Life Change Events
MH  - London/epidemiology
MH  - *Loneliness
MH  - Personality Assessment/statistics & numerical data
MH  - Psychometrics
MH  - Risk Factors
MH  - *Social Support
MH  - Urban Population/*statistics & numerical data
EDAT- 1997/03/01 00:00
MHDA- 1997/03/01 00:01
CRDT- 1997/03/01 00:00
PHST- 1997/03/01 00:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 1997/03/01 00:01 [medline]
PHST- 1997/03/01 00:00 [entrez]
AID - 10.1017/s0033291796004485 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - Psychol Med. 1997 Mar;27(2):323-32. doi: 10.1017/s0033291796004485.