[Depressive symptoms in elderly persons: comparison between rural and urban populations]

The aim of this article is to compare the prevalence of depressive symptoms and its correlates in an urban and a rural sample of 2797 persons of age 65 and over living in Southwest France. The crude prevalence rate of elevated depressive symptomatology, evaluated by the Center of Epidemiological Studies Depression (CESD) scale was 14.1% and 13.9% respectively in the rural and the urban area. After adjusting for potential confounders, the risk of elevated depressive symptoms is slightly higher in the urban area (p = 0.09). Factors found to be associated with the level of depression are the same in the rural and the urban area, and the magnitude of the effects is comparable. These results are compared with those of other studies and the observed differences are discussed.