Osteoporosis May Raise Risk of Depression in Older Adults

Adults aged 50 or older who have osteoporosis are nearly twice as likely as those without to experience depression, according to astudy published this week inPublic Health.“The treatment of osteoporosis has been a growing public health concern worldwide,” wrote Keng Chen, M.D., of Sun Yat-sen University in Shenzhen, China, and colleagues. “In the [United States], about 14.1 million adults aged 50 years and older had osteoporosis, and the prevalence rate showed a steadily increasing trend. … However, there are few studies investigating depression status in people with osteoporosis.”Chen and colleagues used data from theNational Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), a nationally representative, ongoing program designed to assess the health and nutritional status of adults and children in the United States. The survey gathers data through both interviews and physical examinations. The researchers focused on data from NHANES participants who were aged 50 or older and completed the survey in the following two-year cycles: 2005 to 2006, 2007 to 2008, 2009 to 2010, 2013 to 2014, and 2017 to 2020.The Patient Health Questionnaire-9 was used to determine if participants had depressive symptoms or probable depression. Those with scores of five or greater were considered to have depressive symptoms. Those with scores of 10 or greater were considered to have probable depression. Finally, participants were considered to have osteoporosis if their femoral neck bone min...
Source: Psychiatr News - Category: Psychiatry Tags: depression National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey NHANES osteoporosis public health Source Type: research