Stress, health, and depressive symptoms in older adults at three time points over 18 months

This descriptive study is a secondary analysis of data that examined depressive symptoms in a random sample of 429 community-dwelling adults aged 65 years and older. Participants were classified as having consistently high (n = 20). consistently low (n = 327), or fluctuating (n = 82) levels of depressive symptoms, based on scores from the Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression Scale (CES-D; L. S. Radloff, 1977) at three time points over the course of 18 months. Differences in stress (life events and daily hassles), health (self-assessed health and physical complaints), and biographic variables among the 3 groups were examined. One quarter of the sample reported high depressive symptoms at least once over 18 months. There were significant differences among the 3 symptom groups on each of the stress and health measures and on marital status. The findings support the relationship among stress, health, and depressive symptoms over time. Implications for clinicians and researchers are discussed.