Prevalence and costs of major depression among elderly claimants with diabetes.

Objective: To compare the odds of major depression among Medicare claimants with and without diabetes and to test whether annual medical payments are greater for those with both diabetes and major depression than for those with diabetes alone.

Research Design And Methods: This retrospective analysis relies on claims data from the 1997 Medicare 5% Standard Analytic Files. Using these data, we statistically determined whether the odds of major depression are greater among elderly claimants with diabetes after controlling for age, race/ethnicity, and sex.