The Relationship between Muscular Strength and Depression in Older Adults with Chronic Disease Comorbidity

Older adults with disease and disability are particularly vulnerable to experiencing more severe consequences of depression. The purpose of the present study is to investigate the relationship between disease comorbidities (number of disease: ND0, 1 disease: ND1 and 2 or more diseases: ND ≥ 2), hand grip strength (low HGS and high HGS), and the prevalence of depression in Korean older adults. Data from the living profiles of older people survey that was conducted by the ministry of health and welfare in Korea were utilized. Data for 6107 females and 4347 males were appropriate for statistical tests. The results demonstrated that depression was more prevalent as ND increased (p < 0.01). In addition, HGS appeared lower as ND increased in both male (p < 0.01) and female subjects (p < 0.01). Furthermore, relative to ND0 and low HGS, ND0 and high HGS showed a ~65% reduction in the prevalence of depression (p < 0.01). After adjusting for age, the prevalence of depression was reduced by ~60% in the subgroup with ND0 and high HGS relative to ND0 and low HGS (p < 0.01). These data demonstrate that muscular strength indices such as HGS may be useful when assessing depression in older adults. Further research in this area is warranted.