Depressive Symptoms Association With Health Outcomes And Treatment In Older Americans With Diabetes

Introduction: Diabetes remains the 7th leading cause of death in the United States. Diabetes is a major public health concern of its own, but when you add the comorbidity of depression, diabetes outcomes are amplified. This dissertation examines how depressive symptomatology and treatment for depression are associated with selfreported health (SRH) and diabetes control.
Methods: Chi-square and logistic regression were used to analyze data from the Health and Retirement Study (2012). We assessed the associations between SRH and diabetes control with depressive symptomatology data.
Results: In our sample (n=4374), 19% of respondents reported high depressive symptomatology and 59% self-reported “good” health compared to 41% self-reported “bad” health. Associated with “bad” SRH were psychiatric medication or psychotherapy treatment (p=.0211), education (p=<.0001), insulin usage (<.0001), diabetes control (p=<.0001), depressive symptomatology (p=<.0001), and clinical diagnosis for depression (p=.0005). For the second outcome, only 9% of the sample reported no diabetes control. Insulin usage (p=<.0001), SRH (p=<.0001), depressive symptoms (p=.0039), sex (p=.0363) and age (p=.0015) were associated with no diabetes control.
Conclusion: Depressive symptomatology is associated with SRH and diabetes control. Treatment is moderately significant with SRH, but not significant with diabetes control. A depression diagnosis was not significantly associated with diabetes control.