Understanding primary care physicians' propensity to assess elderly patients for depression using interaction and survey data.

Objective: The objective of this study was to examine primary care physicians' propensity to assess their elderly patients for depression using data from videotapes and patient and physician surveys.

Study Design: An observational study was informed by surveys of 389 patients and 33 physicians, and 389 videotapes of their clinical interactions. Secondary quantitative analyses used video data scored by the Assessment of Doctor-Elderly Patient Transactions system regarding depression assessment.