Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the longitudinal impact of depressive
symptoms on utilization of healthcare in terms of GP visits as well as specialist visits and
hospital admission in late life among community-dwelling individuals.
Methods: Longitudinal data (baseline and follow-up) were derived from the German
multicentre, prospective cohort study “Late-life depression in primary care: needs, health
care utilization and costs” study (AgeMooDe). At baseline, n = 1,230 patients aged 75
years and older were recruited from primary care practices. Main outcomes of interest
were use of health care services: the number of GP visits, the number ofmedical specialist
visits, and hospital admission. We used the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-15) to
measure depression. Outcomes were analyzed with multilevel random intercept negative
binominal regression and logistic random-effects models.
Results: At baseline (n = 1,191), mean age was 80.7 (SD 4.6) years, 62.9% were
female, and 196 individuals (16.5%) had depression (GDS-15 6). Our longitudinal
analyses indicated that older individuals with more depressive symptoms visited their
GP more often (IRR=1.03; CI [1.01-1.04], p < 0.001), were visiting medical specialists
more frequently (IRR=1.03; CI [1.01-1.04], p < 0.01), and had higher odds of being
hospitalized (OR=1.08; CI [1.02-1.13], p < 0.01).
Conclusions: Based on this large longitudinal study we showed that, after adjustment
for important covariates, older individuals with more depressive symptoms had higher health care utilization over time. They visited their GP and specialists more frequently
and they had higher odds of being hospitalized. This may suggest that higher utilization
of specialist care and increased likelihood of being hospitalized may be also attributable
to unspecific symptoms or symptoms that are elevated through depressive symptoms
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:DRESDEN/oai:qucosa:de:qucosa:87748 |
| Date | 27 October 2023 |
| Creators | Buczak-Stek, Elzbieta W., Löbner, Margrit, Stein, Janine, Stark, Anne, Kaduszkiewicz, Hanna, Werle, Jochen, Heser, Kathrin, Wiese, Birgitt, Weyerer, Siegfried, Wagner, Michael, Scherer, Martin, Riedel-Heller, Steffi G., König, Hans-Helmut, Hajek, André |
| Publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| Source Sets | Hochschulschriftenserver (HSSS) der SLUB Dresden |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion, doc-type:article, info:eu-repo/semantics/article, doc-type:Text |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
| Relation | 924309 |
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