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Vascular risk factors and incident late-life depression in a Korean population

Department of Psychiatry and Depression Clinical Research Centre, Chonnam National University Medical School, Kwangju

Robert Stewart, MD, MRCPsych

King's College London (Institute of Psychiatry), London, UK

Sung-Wan Kim, MD, PhD, Su-Jin Yang, MD, PhD, Il-Seon Shin, MD, PhD and Jin-Sang Yoon, MD, PhD

Department of Psychiatry and Depression Clinical Research Centre, Chonnam National University Medical School, Kwangju, Korea

Correspondence: Professor Jin-Sang Yoon, Department of Psychiatry, Chonnam National University Medical School, 5 Hak-Dong, Dong-gu, Kwangju 501-757, Republic of Korea. Tel. +82 62 220 6142; fax: +82 62 225 2351; email: jsyoon{at}chonnam.ac.kr

Declaration of interest None.

Funding detailed in Acknowledgements.

Background Causal relationships between vascular factors and late-life depression are controversial.

Aims To investigate prospective associations between risk factors for vascular disease and incidence of late-life depression.

Method Of 661 community participants aged 65 years or over, without depression at baseline, 521 (79%) were re-evaluated 2 years later. At baseline and follow-up, a diagnostic interview for depression was carried out and information on vascular status, disability and cognitive function was gathered.

Results Pre-existing heart disease, incident stroke and lower baseline high-density lipoprotein cholesterol level were significantly associated with incidence of late-life depression, independently of disability and cognitive function.

Conclusions These results provide some support for a vascular aetiology of late-life depression. However, important risk factors for cerebrovascular disease such as hypertension and diabetes were not implicated, and the associations with lipid levels might still be explained by affective states earlier in life.

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