GENDER, SELF-REPORTED DEPRESSIVE SYMPTOMS, AND SLEEP DISTURBANCE AMONG OLDER COMMUNITY-DWELLING PERSONS

The purposes of this report are: (1) to investigate the association be tween sleep disturbances. and depressive symptomatology in older adult s; (2) to evaluate the degree to which gender serves to mediate this r elationship; and (3) to determine whether several predefined covariate s help to explain the association between sleep disturbance and depres sive symptoms. This is a retrospective and cross-sectional analysis of baseline data from 485 elderly adults enrolled in three of the eight clinical sites participating in the Frailty and Injuries: Cooperative Studies of Intervention Techniques (FICSIT) trials, FICSIT was a linke d series of randomized clinical trials which evaluated the impact of v arious exercise interventions on several measures of frailty in older adults. Women reported more depressive symptoms and more sleep disturb ances than men. Sleep disturbances were independently associated with depressive symptoms, bodily pain, a history of falling, limited educat ion, being married, and being female. Gender interactions suggest that , although women reported more depressive symptoms and more chronic he alth conditions than men, both may be more important predictors of sle ep disturbance in men. By contrast, being married may be more predicti ve in women. Finally, the data suggest a stronger relationship between sleep disturbance and depressive symptoms in men than in women. (C) 1 997 Elsevier Science Inc.