An Exploratory Study of Depression Among Older African American Users of an Academic Outpatient Rehabilitation Program
Section snippets
Review of the Literature
Studies of depression among older, community-dwelling African Americans have reported varied prevalence rates. Only a few studies have had sufficient numbers of older African American subjects to report specific prevalence rates of depressive symptoms for this population. In a study by Murrell, Himmelfarb, & Wright (1983), 12.8% of older African Americans had clinically significant depressive symptoms using the typical cutoff score (≥16) on CES-D. Berkman et al. (1986) found that 16% of older
Design
A retrospective, cross-sectional design was used. Data were retrieved from health-care records of older African Americans admitted over a 2-year period.
Setting and Procedure
The setting for the study was the Collaborative Assessment and Rehabilitation for Elders (CARE) Program, an outpatient rehabilitation program specifically designed to meet the rehabilitation needs of community-dwelling older adults that was located in an urban community with a large population of African Americans. The CARE Program was operated
Results
Using a cutoff value of 11 or higher on the GDS as recommended by Yesavage et al. (1983), the prevalence of depression in this sample of older, poor African Americans was 30%. Those individuals who reported suicidal ideation represented 9%. Depressed subjects, compared with nondepressed subjects, were significantly younger (75.6 vs. 78.4 years, P = .023), were more suicidal (24.4% vs. 2.8%, P = .0002), were more likely to rate their general health as poor (mean 3.74 vs. 2.92, P = .017), had
Discussion
Consistent with prior reports, our results suggest that many older, frail, poor African Americans experience depression at clinical levels and support the use of the GDS when screening for depression in this population. Additionally, the significant associations found between depression and certain study variables confirm or extend the results of prior studies in non-African American populations. The study also enabled the authors to add additional information on the presentation of depression
Acknowledgment
The authors thank the University of Pennsylvania Research Foundation and the Xi chapter of Sigma Theta Tau International.
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