[Depressive symptoms, invalidity and the use of professional home care by the elderly; replication and variations]

Dutch researchers found a twice as high prevalence of depression among older users of professional home care compared to non-users. They concluded that depression might be a causal factor in the demand for professional home care. One of our research-questions in a project called 'Professional home care and informal help for the elderly' is the replication of this study: in which way is depression related to professional home care utilization among the elderly? To answer this question we compared a subsample of 60+ years old people, who just received professional home care with a subsample of 60+ years old who didn't get professional home care with more or less the same need of care based on physical handicaps (difficulties in performing a number of ADL- and household activities). Although we also found a positive correlation between depression and physical limitations, our results didn't support another hypothesis: the difference of depression between users and non-users. This difference may be caused by a different research-design and the accuracy in the analysis.