Four-Year Associations Between Cancer Trajectories, Depression and Grip Strength in European Older Adults

This study examined, in Europeans aged 50 and over, 4-year associations between trajectories of non-cancer, incident cancer, and continued cancer with changes in depression levels and grip strength (GS). A longitudinal analysis was conducted with 17,048 participants from 17 European countries using data from waves 6 (2015) and 8 (2019) of the SHARE project. Cancer diagnosis was self-reported, GS was assessed with a hand-held dynamometer, and depression were evaluated with the 12-item EURO-D scale. Participants were classified into three cancer trajectories: non-cancer, incident cancer, and continued cancer. Over 4 years, men showed significant increases in depression across all trajectories, whereas women presented stable or reduced depression levels, especially the continued cancer group. In this group, women exhibited a 1.7% decline in GS and a 10.5% reduction in depression, while men showed a 7.9% decline in GS and a 12.3% increase in depression.