AGE-DIFFERENCES IN THE SYMPTOMS OF DEPRESSION - A LATENT TRAIT ANALYSIS

Our hypothesis was that older adults are less likely than younger adul ts to acknowledge dysphoria or anhedonia even at the same level of dep ression. Study subjects were 3,141 participants in Baltimore, Maryland , and 3,469 participants in the Durham-Piedmont region of North Caroli na who had complete data on symptoms of depression active Lt the one m onth prior to interview, as,veil as several covariates thought to be r elated to depression. The effect of age on the endorsement of the dysp horia/anhedonia stem question from the section on Major Depression in the Diagnostic interview Schedule was estimated ill the two independen tly gathered samples employing structural equations with a measurement model. The results indicate that, even accounting for differences due to overall level of depressive symptoms, as well as gender, minority status, educational attainment, marital status, employment status, and cognitive impairment, dysphoria was less likely to be endorsed by per sons 65 years of age and older. This bias against alder adults may acc ount in part for the low rates of Major Depression reported for older persons from epidemiologic studies employing tile standard diagnostic criteria.