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Depressive symptoms, inflammation, and ischemic stroke in older adults: a prospective analysis in the cardiovascular health study.

TitleDepressive symptoms, inflammation, and ischemic stroke in older adults: a prospective analysis in the cardiovascular health study.
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2007
AuthorsArbelaez, JJ, Ariyo, AA, Crum, RM, Fried, LP, Ford, DE
JournalJ Am Geriatr Soc
Volume55
Issue11
Pagination1825-30
Date Published2007 Nov
ISSN1532-5415
KeywordsAged, C-Reactive Protein, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cerebral Infarction, Cohort Studies, Depression, Female, Geriatric Assessment, Humans, Inflammation, Kaplan-Meier Estimate, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Multivariate Analysis, Personality Assessment, Proportional Hazards Models, Prospective Studies, Psychoneuroimmunology, Risk Factors, Socioeconomic Factors, Statistics as Topic, United States
Abstract<p><b>OBJECTIVES: </b>To investigate the mediator role of inflammation in any relationship between depressive symptoms and ischemic stroke.</p><p><b>DESIGN: </b>Longitudinal prospective study.</p><p><b>SETTING: </b>Review of medical records, death certificates, and the Medicare healthcare utilization database for hospitalizations.</p><p><b>PARTICIPANTS: </b>Total of 5,525 elderly men and women aged 65 and older who were prospectively followed from 1989 to 2000 as participants in the Cardiovascular Health Study.</p><p><b>MEASUREMENTS: </b>Depression symptom scores, inflammatory markers.</p><p><b>RESULTS: </b>Greater depressive symptoms were associated with risk of ischemic stroke (unadjusted hazard ratio (HR)=1.32, 95% confidence interval (CI)=1.09-1.59; HR=1.26, 95% CI=1.03-1.54, adjusted for traditional risk factors). When a term for inflammation (C-reactive protein (CRP)) was introduced in the model, the HRs were not appreciably altered (unadjusted HR=1.31, 95% CI=1.08-1.58; adjusted HR=1.25, 95% CI=1.02-1.53), indicating that CRP at baseline was not a mediator in this relationship. In analyses stratified according to CRP levels, a J-shaped relationship between depressive symptoms and stroke was evident in the unadjusted analyses; in the fully adjusted model, only CRP in the highest tertile was associated with a higher risk for stroke in the presence of higher depressive symptoms scores.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION: </b>The analyses from this prospective study provide evidence of a positive association between depressive symptoms and risk of incident stroke. Inflammation, as measured according to CRP at baseline, did not appear to mediate the relationship between depressive symptoms and stroke.</p>
DOI10.1111/j.1532-5415.2007.01393.x
Alternate JournalJ Am Geriatr Soc
PubMed ID17916124
Grant ListN01 HC-15103 / HC / NHLBI NIH HHS / United States
N01-HC-35129 / HC / NHLBI NIH HHS / United States
N01-HC-85079 / HC / NHLBI NIH HHS / United States
N01-HC-85086 / HC / NHLBI NIH HHS / United States