Depression Linked to Longer Hospital Stay in Elderly

An international team of researchers has found that depressed elderly men were more likely to be admitted to hospitals and stayed there twice as long, according to a new study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. Researchers from Britain, Netherlands and Australia observed more than 5,400 men over 69 years of age in Perth, Australia, and found that around 6.3 percent of the men suffered from moderate to severe depression.

Nearly half of the men from this group were admitted to a hospital at least once compared to 23 percent among the remaining men while they also had higher overnight admissions and deaths in hospitals.

“Some studies had identified a connection between depression and hospital admissions but were let down by limiting the studies to specific clinical populations or by using weak methodologies. We wanted to address this in order to understand whether depressed men living in the community were at higher risk of emergency admissions and worse hospital outcomes”, lead author Matthew Prina of Cambridge University said.

Source-Medindia