Factors Affecting Clinical Depression in Diabetic Geriatric Population

Introduction: Diabetes mellitus is a common metabolic disorder affecting about 10% - 25% of the elderly population. The mechanisms, linking diabetes and major depressive disorders are unknown. Obesity is the risk factor for both diabetes mellitus and depression. The goal of this study was to explore if BMI of elderly diabetic patients with depression differed from BMI of the diabetic individuals without depression. Further, we aimed to explore the association of age, gender, health insurance status, ethnicity influence and systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) with clinical depression in geriatric diabetics. Methods: Nursing home residents were recruited from an outpatient internal medicine clinic in a teaching university setting. After given written consent, patients received Public Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) in either English or Spanish language. Results: While the clinically depressed diabetic participants did not differ from that of the non-depressed diabetic participants with respect to age (70.6 ± 6.1 vs. 72.1 ± 4.8; p = 0.111), gender (47.2% of males vs. 57.1% of females; p = 0.754), or ethnicity (69% explain vs. 71%, p = 1.000), race did appear to differ in depression status: Caucasian, African-American, and others were respectively 37%, 48%, and 15% vs. 32%, 16%, 52%, p = 0.0003). Neither the BMI (p > 0.499) nor Hemoglobin A1c (p > 0.839) differed between the clinically depressed and non-depressed participants when controlled for these race differences. Conclusion: In our sample, diabetic African Americans are three times more likely to be depressed. Diabetic Caucasians also experience higher rates of clinical depression. However, diabetics with depression did not differ from diabetics without depression with regard to their age, gender, BMI, HbA1C, health insurance status, systolic blood pressure or diastolic blood pressure.