Highlights
- •In a longitudinal sample of women transitioning from mid-life to late-life, negative mood and depressive symptoms were seen to decrease.
- •Mid-life women reported more depressive symptoms than late-life women.
- •Assessing negative mood in longitudinal samples is a useful independent measure.
Abstract
Objective
Research aimed at understanding the temporal characteristics of depressive symptoms
and negative mood in an older female population is lacking, despite the relationship
between the two factors being well established. The aim of this study was to examine
the characteristics of negative mood scores and depressive symptom scores in a longitudinal
sample of women transitioning from mid-life to late life.
Study design
This study was a longitudinal assessment of variables drawn from an epidemiological
prospective study of women’s healthy ageing. Scores were analysed using General Linear
Mixed Models.
Main outcome measures
Negative mood scores derived from the Affectometer 2 were assessed at 11 time points
spanning 20 years. Depressive symptom scores were assessed using the Centre for Epidemiological
Studies Depression Scale (CESD), administered in 2002, 2004 and 2012.
Results
Mean negative mood scores reduced significantly between 1992 and 2012, as did mean
CESD scores between 2002 and 2012. Mean negative mood scores reduced by 0.007 for
each year of increasing age. For depressive symptoms, a reduction in mean score of
0.15 was found for each year of increase in age.
Conclusion
Depressive symptom scores and negative mood scores decreased significantly over time.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: October 24, 2016
Accepted:
October 18,
2016
Received in revised form:
October 6,
2016
Received:
July 12,
2016
Identification
Copyright
© 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
