Prospective measures of depressive symptoms in community-dwelling elderly individuals.

Objective: To identify sociodemographic factors associated with patterns of incidence, remission and stability of depressive symptoms in community-dwelling elderly individuals.

Methods: prospective study was conducted, where 310 community-dwelling elderly individuals of the city of Juiz de Fora, Southeastern Brazil, were interviewed between 2002 and 2004. Follow-up (T2) was performed 15.7 months after the first interview (T1). Depressive symptoms were evaluated with the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale. Elderly individuals were classified according to the progression of depressive symptoms and compared in terms of sociodemographic variables with Pearson's chi-square test and Fisher's exact test.

Results: There were no differences in the prevalence of depressive symptoms between T1 and T2 (33.8%). A total of four groups were identified, according to the progression of symptoms from the first to the second measure: without depressive symptoms (50.9%); recurrence (19.7%); incidence (15.2%); and remission (14.2%). Scoring for depression in T1, being female and having a low level of education represented risks of manifesting depressive symptoms in T2.

Conclusions: The worst progressions of depressive symptoms (incidence and recurrence) were associated with the female gender.