Researchers found that depressed older men poses a great threat to their health than for the health of older women.
Depression can be an early sign of impending physical decline, says the study’s author, Kaarin Anstey, Ph. D. Research Centre of Mental Health at the Australian National University Canberra. Or she may bear the symptom of physiological response that predisposes individuals to developing cardiovascular disease or cancer.
Anstey and his co-author Mary A. Lusks, Ph. D. School of Psychology and Centre for the study of Aging at the University of Flinders in Adelaide, South Australia, analysed data from the Australian study of centenarians, which have been studied older people aged 70 and older. The study involved more than 1,900 people, carried out for which a questionnaire survey eliciting from them a state of depression. The first data were recorded in 1992, and the additional recruitment of participants was completed in 1994. The researchers tracked the health of study participants until 2000.
After taking into account factors such as Smoking, alcohol consumption and physical health status, the researchers came to the conclusion that depression was associated with mortality for men but not for women. “Our results confirm previous studies showing that depression in old age occurs more often in women, but has greater negative outcomes for men,” says Anstey.
A significant effect of depression on male mortality was small but “strong”, indicating a possible connection between depression and an imbalance in the body and subsequent health problems. Researchers believe that depression can be a precursor to cardiovascular disease or dementia, or may occur against the background of these conditions.
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