Depressive symptoms in the very elderly—their prevalence and significance

A community sample of 1173 very elderly people (aged over 77) was interviewed by trained lay interviewers using a structured interview, including questions relating to emotional and physical health and social circumstances and the Mini‐Mental State Examination. Depressive symptoms such as loss of energy and feelings of tension and irritability were found frequently. High scores for depressive symptoms were associated with female sex, poor subjective physical health, loneliness and use of statutory services. Depressive symptom score was not found to be associated with age. Although only 6% of the sample described feeling depressed most of the time, 21% of respondents admitted that they sometimes felt that life was not worth living.