Prevalence of depression and clinical depressive symptoms in community‐dwelling older adults with cognitive frailty

• Published in: Geriatrics & gerontology international Vol. 24; no. 2; pp. 225 - 233
• Main Authors: Mohd Safien, A'isyah, Ibrahim, Norhayati, Subramaniam, Ponnusamy, Singh, Devinder Kaur Ajit, Mat Ludin, Arimi Fitri, Chin, Ai‐Vyrn, Shahar, Suzana
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kyoto, Japan John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd 01.02.2024; Blackwell Publishing Ltd
• Subjects: Aged; Cognition; Cognitive ability; cognitive frailty; community dwelling; Comorbidity; depression; Depression - diagnosis; Depression - epidemiology; Frail Elderly - psychology; Frailty; Frailty - diagnosis; Frailty - epidemiology; Geriatric Assessment; Geriatrics; Hearing loss; Humans; Independent Living - psychology; Medical screening; Mental depression; older adult; Older people; Polypharmacy; Prevalence; Visual impairment; Malaysia; older adult; community dwelling; depression; cognitive frailty
• ISSN: 1444-1586; 1447-0594
• DOI: 10.1111/ggi.14801

Aim The present study determines the prevalence of depression and the extent of clinical depression symptoms among community‐dwelling older adults with cognitive frailty and its associated factors. Methods A total of 755 older adults aged ≥60 years were recruited. Their cognitive performance was determined using the Clinical Dementia Rating. Fried's criteria was applied to identify physical frailty, and the Beck Depression Inventory assessed their mental states. Results A total of 39.2% (n = 304) of the participants were classified as cognitive frail. In this cognitive frail subpopulation, 8.6% (n = 26) had clinical depressive symptoms, which were mostly somatic such as disturbance in sleep pattern, work difficulty, fatigue, and lack of appetite. Older adults with cognitive frailty also showed significantly higher depression levels as compared with the noncognitive frail participants (t (622.06) = −3.38; P = 0.001). There are significant associations between depression among older adults with cognitive frailty and multimorbidity (P = 0.009), polypharmacy (P = 0.009), vision problems (P = 0.046), and hearing problems (P = 0.047). The likelihood of older adults with cognitive frailty who experience impairments to their vision and hearing, polypharmacy, and multimorbidity to be depressed also increased by 2, 3, 5, and 7‐fold. Conclusions The majority of the Malaysian community‐dwelling older adults were in a good mental state. However, older adults with cognitive frailty are more susceptible to depression due to impairments to their hearing and vision, multimorbidity, and polypharmacy. As common clinical depressive symptoms among older adults with cognitive frailty are mostly somatic, it is crucial for health professionals to recognize these and not to disregard them as only physical illness. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2024; 24: 225–233. Do clinical depression symptoms vary according to older adults' cognitive function?