• Richard D Hayes, William Lee, Lauren Rayner, Annabel Price, Barbara Monroe, Penny Hansford, Nigel Sykes, and Matthew Hotopf.
• Section of Epidemiology, Department of Health Service and Population Research, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, UK. richd.hayes@gmail.com
• Palliat Med. 2012 Jul 1; 26 (5): 696-702.

Backgroundin community studies the prevalence of depression is higher in women than men; however, in palliative care settings this relationship is usually less strong, absent or reversed.Aimto identify reasons for excess depression among men receiving palliative care.Designcross-sectional study.Setting/Participantswe interviewed 300 patients recruited from a large hospice in South East London. Depression was measured using the Primary Care Evaluation of Mental Disorder.Resultsthe higher prevalence of depression among men was not explained by a higher prevalence of particular types of cancer nor confounding by other covariates. Possible effect modifiers were examined. Depending on others for help with basic tasks (eating, dressing, washing or using the toilet) was a risk factor for depression in men only, with 37.8% of dependent men being depressed compared to 2.4% of similarly affected women (OR = 24.3, 3.1-193.2, p = 0.003). We observed a dose-response effect between the level of dependency and depression in men (p for trend = 0.01).Conclusiondepending on others for help with basic tasks appears to contribute to the burden of depression among men with terminal illness. This gender-specific association may explain why the usual gender differences in depression prevalence are not observed in palliative care.

20 keywords...

hide…