Monday, May 03, 2004

Hidden cost of depression in seniors: $9 billion in care from spouses, children
University of Michigan Health System press release - "A new study reveals that depression among senior citizens carries a huge unrecognized cost: many extra hours of unpaid help with everyday activities, delivered by the depressed seniors' spouses, adult children and friends. Even moderately depressed seniors, the University of Michigan study finds, require far more hours of care than those without any symptoms of depression, regardless of other health problems they may have. If depressed seniors' 'informal' caregivers were paid the wages of a home health aide, the cost to society would be $9 billion a year, the researchers estimate. That puts depression second only to dementia in the national annual cost for informal caregiving, based on previous studies of the same data. And the findings illustrate the major impact of depression on both seniors and their loved ones. The findings, which will be published in the May issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry, are based on data from the U-M's Health and Retirement Study, a long-term survey of older Americans conducted by the U-M Institute for Social Research."