Disclosures: Joshua Patino, BS: No financial relationships or conflicts of interest
Objective: To examine the effect of depressive symptoms on physical performance over time in a community dwelling Mexican Americans aged 65 years and older.
Design: A 20-year prospective cohort study. Setting : Hispanic Established Population for the Epidemiologic Study of the Elderly survey conducted in the southwest United States (Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, and California). Participants : A population-based sample of 2,328 community dwelling Mexican American men and women aged 65 and older who were able to complete the Short Physical Performance Battery tests at baseline.
Interventions: not applicable
Main Outcome Measures: Socio-demographic factors, depressive symptoms (Center of Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale score ≥ 16), Short physical performance battery (SPPB), maximal hand grip strength, activities of daily living (ADLs), body mass index (BMI), mini-mental state examination (MMSE), and self-reports of various medical conditions. General linear mixed models were used to estimate change in SPPB over a 20-year period as a function of depressive symptoms. All variables were used as time varying except for gender and education.
Results: The mean SPPB score at baseline was 6.7 ± 2.4 for those with depressive symptoms and 7.8 ± 2.5 for those without depressive symptoms. Mixed Model analyses showed that participants with depressive symptoms declined 0.99 per year (Standard error [SE] = 0.08, p-value < 0.0001) compared to those without depressive symptoms, after adjusting for all covariates. Arthritis, diabetes, stroke, heart attack, ADL disability, and high BMI were also risk factors for decline in SPPB over time. Conclusions: Depressive symptoms was a predictor of decline in short physical performance battery over 20 years in older Mexican Americans. This warrants future research on the effect of depressive symptoms on other measures of physical performance over time in older Mexican Americans and the general population.
Level of Evidence: Level II
To cite this abstract in AMA style:
Patino J, Snih SA. Depressive Symptoms Predict Decline in Physical Performance Among Older Mexican Americans [abstract]. PM R. 2020; 12(S1)(suppl 1). https://pmrjabstracts.org/abstract/depressive-symptoms-predict-decline-in-physical-performance-among-older-mexican-americans/. Accessed June 28, 2025.« Back to AAPM&R Annual Assembly 2020
PM&R Meeting Abstracts - https://pmrjabstracts.org/abstract/depressive-symptoms-predict-decline-in-physical-performance-among-older-mexican-americans/