The impact of depression on the well-being, disability and use of services in older adults: a longitudinal perspective.

Objective: To study the impact of depression on the wellbeing, disability and use of health services of older adults.

Method: Prospective community-based study, using a large (n = 2,200) sample of the elderly (55-85) in the Netherlands. Using a 3-year follow-up, the effect of depressive symptoms (CES-D) on disability, wellbeing and service utilization was assessed, controlling for competing need-for-care (chronic physical illness, functional limitation and cognitive decline), enabling (partner status, size of the social network, social support and locus of control), and predisposing factors (age, sex and level of education).

Clinical characteristics of women with chlamydial cervicitis.

Four hundred ninety-three women were examined, had a cervical culture done for Chlamydia trachomatis and completed a questionnaire. Sixty-one, or 12.4%, were positive for Chlamydia on culture.

Identification of chlamydia in cervical smears by immunofluorescence: technic, sensitivity, and specificity.

Immunofluorescent staining was compared to cell culture for the diagnosis of Chlamydia trachomatis infections in the female genital tract. By culture, the incidence in the 496 patients in the study was 12.3%.

The cytologic features of chlamydial cervicitis.

Chlamydial cervicitis is a common and important infection. Diagnostic cytologic criteria have been proposed, but not generally accepted. To better evaluate the cytologic changes, cervical cultures for Chlamydia trachomatis and duplicate cervical smears for Papanicolaou staining and immunofluorescence staining for chlamydial organisms were taken from 496 patients.