The Relationship between Locomotive Syndrome and Depression in Community-Dwelling Elderly People.

Misa Nakamura,Hiroshi Hashizume,Ryohei Kono,Sachiko Nomura,Hirotoshi Utsunomiya

doi:10.1155/2017/4104802

Abstract

Locomotive syndrome (LS) is a concept that refers to the condition of people requiring healthcare services because of problems associated with locomotion. Depression is a major psychiatric disease among the elderly, in addition to dementia. The purpose of this study was to determine the association between LS and depression. The study participants were 224 healthy elderly volunteers living in a rural area in Japan. LS was defined as scores ≥ 16 on the 25-question Geriatric Locomotive Function Scale (GLFS-25). Depression was defined as scores ≥ 5 on the 15-item Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-15). Height and body weight were measured. The prevalence of LS and depression was 13.9% and 24.2%, respectively. Compared with the non-LS group, the LS group was older, was shorter, had a higher BMI, and had higher GDS-15 scores. Logistic regression analysis showed that participants with GDS-15 scores ≥ 6 had higher odds for LS than those with GDS-15 scores < 6 (odds ratio [OR] = 4.22). Conversely, the depression group had higher GLFS-25 scores than the nondepression group. Participants with GLFS-25 scores ≥ 5 had higher odds for depression than those with GLFS-25 scores < 5 (OR = 4.53). These findings suggest that there is a close relationship between LS and depression.

Highlights

In our worldwide aging society, it is important that elderly people maintain physical and mental function to avoid health problems
Logistic regression analysis showed that participants with GDS-15 scores ≥ 6 had higher odds for Locomotive syndrome (LS) than those with GDS-15 scores < 6 (OR = 4.22, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.80–9.91; p < 0.001) (Table 3)
Our results showed that participants with LS had a shorter height, higher BMI, and higher prevalence of depression than participants without LS

Summary

Introduction

In our worldwide aging society, it is important that elderly people maintain physical and mental function to avoid health problems. Depression late in life is one of the most common mental disorders in old age [1]. According to research on community-dwelling older adults, the proportion of individuals reporting depressive symptoms ranges from 2.8% to 35% [2]. Depression in the elderly is a serious risk factor for becoming bedridden and requiring long-term care and is closely related to falls, as well as both quality of life (QOL) and activities of daily living (ADL) [3, 4]. It is reported that the death rate of people with depression is 1.8 times that of nondepressed people [5]. There is an urgent need for medicine and social policy to find ways of reducing and preventing depression in older adults in the community

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Methods

Conclusion