Mortality and mental disorders in a Spanish elderly population

✍ Scribed by Pedro Saz; Lenore J. Launer; José-Luis Día; Concepción De-La-Cámara; Guillermo Marcos; Antonio Lobo

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1999
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 100 KB
• Volume: 14
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0885-6230
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-1166(199912)14:12<1031::aid-gps59>3.0.co;2-v

✦ Synopsis

Objective:

To analyse the relationship between mental disorders and mortality rates in the elderly community of zaragoza, spain.

Methods:

Baseline, cross-sectional study (two-stage screening) of a representative, stratified sample (n=1080) of the elderly (65+ years) living in the community. follow-up study (4.5 years).

Instruments:

Spanish versions of geriatric mental state, agecat computerized diagnostic program and mini-mental status examination.

Results:

Two hundred and sixteen subjects died during the follow-up period (global mortality rate 4.8% per year). using a logistic regression model with sex, age, educational level, physical illness and agecat diagnoses as explanatory variables and alive/dead as response, the following odds ratios (95% confidence intervals in parentheses) were obtained (reference group: non-cases): 'subcases' 1.3 (0.9-2.0), 'organic' (dementia) 3.7 (2.0-6.7), global depression 3.0 (1.7-5.3), 'psychotic' depression (melancholic type) 3.7 (1.7-8. 4), 'neurotic' depression 2.7 (1.4-5.3) and 'neuroses' 0.8 (0.2-3.6). both pure 'organic' and pure 'depressed' cases had higher mortality when compared with comorbidity cases.

Conclusion:

There is a significant association between psychiatric morbidity and mortality in the elderly living in a spanish community. mortality risk in psychiatric cases are higher than previously reported in the literature.