Association of pain and physical dependency with depression in physically ill middle-aged and elderly persons

To investigate the relationship of pain and physical dependency to depression, the authors conducted a panel survey of 133 middle-aged and elderly persons with recent exacerbations of various physical illnesses. Of the original 133 subjects, 114 participated in two in-depth personal interviews conducted about three months apart. Variables that were measured included age, income, social support, physical dependency, pain, and depression. Physical dependency was moderately associated with depression (r = .27). A multiple regression analysis performed to control for the other variables, however, revealed that physical dependency had little effect on depression (R2 change = .03). Correlation (r = .41) and regression (R2 change = .13) analyses indicated that pain was an important factor in level of depression even after controlling for all of the other variables.