Depressive symptoms are associated with incident coronary heart disease or revascularization among blacks but not among whites in the Reasons for Geographical and Racial Differences in Stroke study.

Purpose: To examine the association of depressive symptoms with coronary heart disease (CHD) end points by race and income.

Methods: Study participants were blacks and whites (n = 24,443) without CHD at baseline from the national Reasons for Geographical and Racial Differences in Stroke cohort. Outcomes included acute CHD and CHD or revascularization. We estimated race-stratified multivariate Cox proportional hazards models of incident CHD and incident CHD or revascularization with the 4-item Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale, adjusting for risk factors.

Results: Mean follow-up was 4.2 ± 1.5 years; CHD incidence was 8.3 events per 1000 person-years (n = 366) among blacks and 8.8 events per 1000 person-years (n = 613) among whites. After adjustment for age, sex, marital status, region, and socioeconomic status, depressive symptoms were significantly associated with incident CHD among blacks (hazard ratio [HR], 1.39; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.00-1.91) but not among whites (HR, 1.10; 95% CI, 0.74-1.64). In the fully adjusted model, compared with blacks who reported no depressive symptoms, those reporting depressive symptoms had greater risk for the composite end point of CHD or revascularization (HR, 1.36; 95% CI, 1.01-1.81). Depressive symptoms were not associated with incident CHD end points among whites.

Conclusions: High depressive symptoms were associated with higher risk of CHD or revascularization for blacks but not whites.