Social Frailty Influences Depression, Study Says

Social frailty is strongly associated with the incidence of depression in the older adult population, according to a new study in the June issue of JAMDA.

Researchers assessed 3,538 older adults in Japan in terms of depressive symptoms and frailty status, including physical frailty, cognitive impairment, and social frailty. Four years later, they assessed the same people for depressive symptoms and found that 12 percent of the adults with depression also had social frailty, versus 5 percent without any frailty. This compared to 9.6 percent of those with depression and physical frailty and 9.3 percent of those with cognitive impairment and depression.

JAMDA is the journal of AMDA – The Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine.