What is the factor structure of depression in older men and women?
Older men and women share common dimensions of anxious depression and general dissatisfaction, with women potentially having an additional dimension of sleep impairment.
Administered the Wakefield Self-Assessment Depression Inventory to 173 noninstitutionalized men and 329 noninstitutionalized women over 59 years of age. Separate, principal factor analyses were performed for both sexes, and the resultant factors were compared between sexes. The elderly men and women shared common dimensions of anxious depression and general dissatisfaction. There was also a suggestion that there might be a third dimension for women--sleep impairment. Implications of the results for diagnosing depressive syndromes in the elderly were discussed.
Oltman et al. (Tue,) studied this question.