Journal of the American Medical Directors Association
Original studyPrevalence and Treatment of Diagnosed Depression among Elderly Nursing Home Residents in Ohio
Section snippets
Data
In this study, the 2000 Ohio Long-term Care MDS was used as the source of NH resident information. These data were merged with the OSCAR data to obtain nursing home facility characteristics. The research protocol was approved by Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey’s Institutional Review Board. The MDS is a nationally standardized 350-item summary screening and assessment tool designed to collect data on nursing home residents including their physical, psychological, and psychosocial
Results
The characteristics of Ohio elderly nursing home residents in 2000 are presented in the first 2 columns of Table 1. Most were female (75%), white (89%), and widowed (64%). Physical comorbidity was prevalent, with 90% having at least 1 chronic physical illness. Over 75% were dependent in ADL activities, and 81% had at least some cognitive impairment. The model resident lived in a for-profit (74%) facility in an urban area (78%) with 100 to 199 (62%) residents.
Discussion
In this paper, we described patterns of identification of depression (diagnosis) and its treatment among long-stay nursing home residents aged 65 and older. We also determined characteristics of residents and facilities that predict whether a resident received a depression diagnosis and subsequent treatment.
Our results indicate that the oldest-old are approximately a third less likely than those age 65 to 75 to be diagnosed; those with very severe cognitive impairment are a third less likely to
Conclusion
Despite these limitations, our findings tend to dispel the longstanding belief that depression is substantially underdiagnosed and undertreated among NH residents. Our findings indicate a very substantial rate both of depression identification and of antidepressant treatment for depression among NH residents, perhaps as a result of general increases in awareness of depression among the elderly, and of the positive potential of available treatments. However, many questions are left unanswered.
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Cited by (0)
Funded by National Institute of Mental Health Grant 1-RO1 MH076206 and AHRQ Grant R24-HS011825.