Depressive Symptoms among Community-Dwelling Older Adults with Mild to Moderate Knee Osteoarthritis: Extent, Interrelationships, and Predictors

摘要

The present cross sectional study strove to examine the prevalence and extent of comorbid depressive symptoms and its relationship with pain, function, disease impact, body mass index, medication history, and self-efficacy for managing pain, and other symptoms among a cohort of generally healthy older knee osteoarthritis (OA) patients with mild to moderate disease. Data previously collected on 71 generally healthy active women and 15 men with either unilateral or bilateral knee mild to moderate knee osteoarthritis, mean age, 72.47+7.15 years were analyzed with correlation analysis and descriptive statistics using the SPSS program. Analyses revealed: 1. More than 20% of the present cohort could be categorized as having severe clinical depression using a more stringent cut-off point than the standard, even though none were being treated for this condition; 2) Cases categorized as exhibiting depressive symptoms indicative of depressed mood tended to have more pain, worse mobility, and lower self-efficacy perceptions than those who were not exhibiting such symptoms; 3) Those with low self-management related self-efficacy were more likely to report depressive symptoms than not (p <.01). It is concluded that it is essential to routinely screen older adults with early stage osteoarthritis of the knee for depression, as well as their beliefs about their ability to manage their disease in efforts to reduce the immense disability burden of knee osteoarthritis.