NON-INSULIN-DEPENDENT DIABETES-MELLITUS IS ASSOCIATED WITH A GREATER PREVALENCE OF DEPRESSION IN THE ELDERLY

We investigated the association of non-insulin-dependent (Type 2) diab etes mellitus and depression symptoms in a representative community-dw elling elderly population independently of other conditions such as ge nder, age, status, disability, cognitive impairment and a number of ch ronic medical conditions such as chronic obstructive lung disease, deg enerative joint disease, heart disease, cirrhosis of the liver, cholel ithiasis, peptic ulcer and kidney stones. A total of 1339 elderly subj ects living in southern Italy were randomly selected from electoral ro lls and evaluated. All subjects were tested by the Geriatric Depressio n Scale to detect depression, the Mini-Mental State Examination to stu dy cognitive function and the Activity Daily Living Index to evaluate disability. Non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus affected 14.7 % of our sample. Depression was more prevalent in women over 75 years of a ge than in younger women (15.9 vs 8.1 %, p < 0.001). In multiple linea r regression analysis, diabetes mellitus was found to be significantly associated with depression independently of age, gender, loneliness, cognitive impairment, chronic obstructive lung disease, degenerative j oint disease, heart diseases, cancer, kidney disease, cirrhosis of the liver and cholelithiasis. It is concluded that non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus is significantly associated with depression in the e lderly, which may have clinical implications for the achievement of su fficient blood glucose control.