Greater mortality risk with comorbid coronary heart disease and depressive symptoms either condition alone

Greater mortality risk with comorbid coronary heart disease and depressive symptoms either condition alone QUESTION Question: Do depressive symptoms and coronary heart disease (CHD) interact to elevate the risk of death compared with each of these conditions alone? People: 5936 people with a median age of 61 years at baseline. Initial data were taken from phase 7 (2002-2004) of the British Whitehall II longitudinal study of civil servants. Participants aged 35-55 were originally recruited to the study in 1985. All participants with complete data at phase 7 were included in the analysis. Setting: UK; 2002-2009. Risk factors: Depressive symptoms and CHD, separately and as comorbidities. CHD was defi ned as non-fatal myocardial infarction or clinically confi rmed angina based on examinations at phases 1, 3, 5 and 7 of the Whitehall study and review hospital and general practitioner records. Depressive symptoms were measured using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale at phase 7 through interview. Data were also collected on the following covariates: sociodemographics, behavioural risk factors including smoking status, exercise, alcohol consumption, biological factors including blood pressure, body mass index (BMI), heart rate and diabetes and medication use including cardiovascular disease (CVD) treatments. Outcomes: Primary outcome: all cause mortality. Secondary outcome: death from CVD.