Major depression as a predictor of premature deaths in lderly people in Finland: a community study

In order to analyse the survival of elderly Finnish people with major depression, a total of 29 elderly (≥65 years) subjects suffering from major depression (DSM-III criteria) and 853 non-depressed elderly subjects were followed up for 6 years. The Kaplan-Meier survival curves showed the survival of patients suffering from major depression to be poorer than that of non-depressed subjects. When age, sex, marital status, level of education, smoking habits, physical health, functional abilities and major depression were introduced into the Cox model, advanced age, male sex, smoking, poor physical health, reduced functional abilities and the occurrence of major depression were found to be related to higher levels of mortality. The results suggest that major depression in the elderly predicts higher mortality which is not explained by their poor baseline level of physical health alone.