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(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Centenarians are one of the fastest growing groups of Americans, yet little is known about their overall health. When researchers began taking a closer look at their quality of life, they discovered that many suffer from undiagnosed depression.
More than 60,000 people in the U.S. are 100 years old or older, and that number is expected to quadruple to 274,000 as the baby boomers start to hit the 100-year-mark, according to the U.S. Bureau of the Census.
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To learn more about this group, psychologists looked at indicators of depression among respondents enrolled in the Georgia Centenarian Study, a three-phased project to study the quality of life for those over 100. When they looked at the responses given by a sample of 244 centenarians, researchers found more than 25 percent showed symptoms of depression, but only 8 percent said they had been diagnosed with depression.
Lead author Adam Davey, a developmental psychologist in the College of Health Professions at Temple University, said this is something caregivers need to be aware of because depression is one of the most easily treated forms of mental illness.
Caregivers often focus on the physical part of health. Or, when they look at the mental health of older adults, they focus more on dementia. But depression is important to consider too -- its not just something that younger people suffer from, Davey was quoted as saying.
He said his research suggests depression is caused by a number of factors, such as poor nutrition, urinary incontinence, limited physical activity and a past history of anxiety. Davey said further research is needed to pinpoint the reasons for the high levels of depression.
SOURCE: Study presented at the Gerontological Society of Americas annual meeting on Nov. 24, 2008
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