[Social contact and depression in geriatric patients: is there an influence of gender?]

Depression is one of the most common affective illnesses. The investigation of changeable factors that are associated with depression is an important condition for the establishment of preventive measures. In a cross-sectional study, data on social factors were recorded from 580 geriatric patients of the municipal hospital in Munich. Ordinal logistic regression was used to analyse their association with depression (clinical diagnoses by ICD-10) and depressive symptoms (GDS). The results indicate that the occurrence of depressive symptoms and of depression was associated with less social contacts and less support, even after adjustment for other risk factors (for example, physical and cognitive impairment). This association was more distinct for women (for example, depressive symptoms: moderate versus much contact: OR=2.7; 95% CI: 1.8-4.1) than for men (OR=1.3; 95% CI: 0.7-2.4). Further research is needed to investigate whether women could benefit more than men from programmes promoting social support.