TY - JOUR
T1 - Symptoms of depression and insomnia in older age
T2 - A within-individual analysis over 20 years
AU - Brouwer, Annelies
AU - van de Ven, Peter M.
AU - Kok, Almar
AU - Snoek, Frank J.
AU - Beekman, Aartjan T. F.
AU - Bremmer, Marijke A.
N1 - Funding Information: We thank the steering committee of the LASA for making the dataset available for this study. Funding Information: These specific analyses received no specific grant from any funding agency, commercial, or not‐for‐profit sectors. The Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam is supported by a grant from the Netherlands Ministry of Health Welfare and Sports, Directorate of Long‐Term Care. The data collection in 2012–2013 and 2013–2014 was financially supported by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) in the framework of the project “New cohorts of young old in 21st century” (file number 480–10‐014). Annelies Brouwer is supported by a European Foundation for the Study of Diabetes (EFSD)/Lilly Mental Health award 2012 (to Marijke A. Bremmer). Funding information Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The Authors. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of The American Geriatrics Society.
PY - 2022/7
Y1 - 2022/7
N2 - Background: Depression and insomnia often co-occur, and precede one another. Possibly, insomnia gives rise to depression, and vice versa. We tested whether insomnia symptoms of an older individual are associated with later depressive symptoms in that older individual, and vice versa. Methods: We performed a longitudinal analysis of data from a prospective cohort study in a large sample of community-dwelling older people (N = 3081), with measurements every three years, over a time period of 20 years. The within-individual longitudinal reciprocal relationship between symptoms of depression (Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale), and symptoms of insomnia (three-item questionnaire, including difficulty initiating sleep, nightly awakenings, and early morning awakening) was modeled by means of a bivariate linear growth model. We tested whether symptoms of insomnia were associated with symptoms of depression three years later, and vice versa. Results: Severity of symptoms of depression and insomnia and their within-individual average change over time were moderately correlated (correlation of intercepts: rho 0.41, 95% CI: 0.36 to 0.46 p < 0.001; correlation of slopes: rho 0.39, 95% CI: 0.25 to 0.52, p < 0.001). Symptoms of depression were not found to be associated with an additional risk of higher symptoms of insomnia three years later, and vice versa (p = 0.329 and p = 0.919, respectively). Similar results were found when analyses were corrected for covariates. Conclusions: In older individuals, depression and insomnia are associated and tend to increase concurrently over time, but constitute no additional risk for one another over repeated three-year intervals. These findings contradict previous research that suggests that depression and insomnia are risk factors for one another over time. The current study stands out due to the longitudinal within-individual statistical approach, but is limited by the three-year interval between measures.
AB - Background: Depression and insomnia often co-occur, and precede one another. Possibly, insomnia gives rise to depression, and vice versa. We tested whether insomnia symptoms of an older individual are associated with later depressive symptoms in that older individual, and vice versa. Methods: We performed a longitudinal analysis of data from a prospective cohort study in a large sample of community-dwelling older people (N = 3081), with measurements every three years, over a time period of 20 years. The within-individual longitudinal reciprocal relationship between symptoms of depression (Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale), and symptoms of insomnia (three-item questionnaire, including difficulty initiating sleep, nightly awakenings, and early morning awakening) was modeled by means of a bivariate linear growth model. We tested whether symptoms of insomnia were associated with symptoms of depression three years later, and vice versa. Results: Severity of symptoms of depression and insomnia and their within-individual average change over time were moderately correlated (correlation of intercepts: rho 0.41, 95% CI: 0.36 to 0.46 p < 0.001; correlation of slopes: rho 0.39, 95% CI: 0.25 to 0.52, p < 0.001). Symptoms of depression were not found to be associated with an additional risk of higher symptoms of insomnia three years later, and vice versa (p = 0.329 and p = 0.919, respectively). Similar results were found when analyses were corrected for covariates. Conclusions: In older individuals, depression and insomnia are associated and tend to increase concurrently over time, but constitute no additional risk for one another over repeated three-year intervals. These findings contradict previous research that suggests that depression and insomnia are risk factors for one another over time. The current study stands out due to the longitudinal within-individual statistical approach, but is limited by the three-year interval between measures.
KW - depression
KW - depressive
KW - elderly
KW - insomnia
KW - older
KW - sleep
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85128319164&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - https://doi.org/10.1111/jgs.17765
DO - https://doi.org/10.1111/jgs.17765
M3 - Article
C2 - 35383906
SN - 0002-8614
VL - 70
SP - 2051
EP - 2059
JO - Journal of the American Geriatrics Society
JF - Journal of the American Geriatrics Society
IS - 7
ER -