Abstract
The association between depressive symptoms and documented general hospital care during an 8-year period was studied in a geographically defined population of 1 040 Finnish persons aged 65 years or more (90% of the eligible elderly). The prevalence of depressive symptoms for the total population was 13.2%. One-quarter of the subjects used 60 hospital days or more in 8 years (high users). The risk of becoming a high user was 1.5 times greater among the depressive elderly than among the others. Depressive symptoms were significantly associated with high use of general hospital care in age-controlled analyses. In men, depressive symptoms were associated with a high use of hospital care even when the effects of somatic morbidity were controlled for. Depressive symptoms can help to identify elderly who are at risk of becoming high users of general hospital care.
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