Prevalence of depressive feelings in older adult Medicare home health beneficiaries in Texas

This study examined the prevalence of depressive feelings in older adults to determine if depressive feelings increased the length of stay. This quantitative analysis used a national database of Medicare home health beneficiaries, who were age 65 years and older in the state of Texas in 2005. Depressive mood was the largest reported depressive feeling (n = 25,837; 21.9%). Specific depressive feelings, sense of failure or self reproach, hopelessness, thoughts of death, and thoughts of suicide were found in less than one percent of the population. Therefore, all depressive feelings were grouped into one variable called at least one depressive feeling. Sample size was 118,172 beneficiaries. Beneficiaries with at least one depressive feeling represented 22.7% (n = 26,808) of the sample. The sample was mostly Caucasian 65.6% (n = 77,562), female 66% (n = 78,733), with a mean age of 78.19 years (SD = 7.756), and a mean length of stay of 56.75 days (Si>48.699). Females (n = 18,820; 15.9%) reported more depressive feelings than males (n = 7,988; 6.9%). Of the 26,808 beneficiaries who reported depressive feelings, the largest ethnic group was Caucasians (n = 17,935; 66.9%) followed by Hispanics (n = 6,165; 23%) and African Americans (n = 2,708; 10.1%). Using a multivariate regression analysis, differences between age, ethnicity, and the presence of at least one depressive feeling was significant (F= 3.774; df=2/l\S,l54; p = .023) when predicting the length of stay. Although Hispanics and African-Americans had longer lengths of stay compared to Caucasians regardless of reported depressive feelings, the slopes comparing groups were significant. There was a significant increase in length of stay, with Caucasians age 70 who reported depressive feelings compared to Hispanics age 70 and 85 or African-Americans age 70 and 85 who reported depressive feelings. Future investigation is needed to determine if Hispanics and African-Americans do not report depressive feelings due to cultural and social influences or barriers. Although thought of suicide was represented by 0.4% (n = 468) beneficiaries in the sample, additional investigation of this specific depressive feeling is needed due to the severity of the consequences.