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Serum cholesterol and depressive symptoms in elderly Finnish men
Author(s) -
Äijänseppä Sinikka,
Kivinen Paula,
Helkala EevaLiisa,
Kivelä SirkkaLiisa,
Tuomilehto Jaakko,
Nissinen Aulikki
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
international journal of geriatric psychiatry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.28
H-Index - 129
eISSN - 1099-1166
pISSN - 0885-6230
DOI - 10.1002/gps.666
Subject(s) - depression (economics) , odds ratio , medicine , cholesterol , population , confidence interval , endocrinology , environmental health , economics , macroeconomics
Objective Evidence from previous studies suggests that alterations in lipid levels may be associated with depression in old age. The objective of this study was to investigate the association between serum lipids and depressive symptoms in a population of elderly men. Subjects and methods Altogether 470 men born between 1900 and 1919 were examined in the 30‐year follow‐up of the Seven Countries Study in 1989. Zung Self‐Rating Depression Scale was used to determine the depressive status of the subjects. The depressive status was dichotomised and used as the dependent variable in the present study. Results The depressive status was available for 421 men aged 70 to 89 years in 1989. The prevalence of depression, defined as the Zung sum score equal to or greater than 48, was 15.2% ( n = 64). A low serum total cholesterol (odds ratio (OR) 0.67, 95% confidence intervals (CI) 0.48–0.94, p = 0.022) and low low density lipoprotein cholesterol (OR 0.67, 95% CI: 0.46–0.98, p = 0.041) were independently associated with depression. No association with depression was found for high density lipoprotein (HDL) concentration or HDL/total cholesterol ratio after the adjustment for other putative correlates for depression. Conclusions Our study of a well‐documented population of elderly Finnish men confirms that low total serum cholesterol is associated with a high amount of depressive symptoms independently of weight change or chronic disease. Our study is the first to show an independent association of low LDL‐cholesterol concentration with a high amount of depressive symptoms in the old–old. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.