DEPRESSION, CHRONIC DISEASE AND FUNCTIONAL LIMITS: A COMPARISON BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND INDIA

Open Access

Abstract

Depression is a substantial global health problem with implications for public health policy, planning of social programs and medical spending. Empirical evidence shows that chronic disease and functional limitation lead to depression among older adults. Few studies have attempted to understand the impact of functional limitations on the association between chronic disease and depression in low-income countries. Our study begins this investigation with a comparison study between India and the US. This study examines the effects of chronic disease conditions and functional limitations on depressive symptoms controlling for other measures including age, race, education and marital status. These associations are investigated with data from the 2012 wave of the Health and Retirement Study for the United States (HRS) and 2010 Longitudinal Aging Studies of India (LASI), harmonized for comparability. Preliminary findings suggest the association between chronic disease and depression is partially mediated by functional limitations in the United States. However, different results are present within the LASI dataset. The presence of chronic disease conditions does not predict depression, whereas there is a positive association between functional limitations and depressive symptoms (p<.0001) that does not alter the relationship between chronic conditions and depressive symptoms. We discuss the cultural and policy differences that are likely behind this observed difference and further discuss the implications of our findings for future research.