Depression and its relationship to function and medical status, by dementia status, in nursing home admissions

Objective: To determine rates of depression by dementia status in a statewide sample of nursing home admissions, and associations with medical comorbidity and physical functioning. Methods: Trained interviewers obtained information from nursing home residents, staff, significant others, and medical records. Results: A total of 22.3% were classified depressed in the nondemented status and 23.6% in the demented status. Depression status was significantly associated with more physical dependencies regardless of dementia status. In the nondemented, there was also a significant positive association with number of comorbidities. One interaction, dementia with comorbidity at the highest levels of comorbidity, was significant in looking at association with depression. Conclusion: There is significant depressive symptomatology in nursing home admissions, which is also associated with difficulty in physical function and with the number of medical comorbidities in the nondemented. Application of the two measures used in this study represents a strategy to assess depression in all nursing home residents.