Aging and the Course of Depressive Symptoms

描述（由申请人提供）：衰老和抑郁之间的关系是神秘的。使用标准化诊断标准的流行病学研究经常报告抑郁症的患病率和发病率随着年龄的增长而下降，即使在非常年老的成人年龄组中也是如此。最近对现有研究的解释表明，抑郁症状的年龄差异表明，老年人的负担较低，这可能是通过降低风险和改善老年时期的情绪弹性来实现的。然而，其他研究表明，抑郁症状的负担随着年龄的增长而增加。要了解抑郁症与年龄和衰老之间的关系，需要使用已建立的工具在有代表性的样本中收集纵向数据。密歇根大学进行的健康和退休调查（HRS）是进一步了解衰老和抑郁之间关系的一个资源，这是一项大型的、有代表性的纵向研究，其中包括一个模仿流行病学研究中心抑郁量表（CES-D）的抑郁症状清单。然而，使用HRS/CES-D的纵向研究一直受到阻碍，因为反应量表和症状覆盖在研究期间有所不同。本研究项目的具体目的是：(1)验证一个基于项目反应理论的量表系统，该系统将使用不同HRS波的不同反应格式获得的CES-D反应纳入一个等效度量标准；(2)检查CES-D反应的差异项目功能（DIF）证据，并确定DIF模式是否因反应格式而异；(3)分析老年人抑郁症状的病程。(4)存档HRS受访者的抑郁值，供其他研究者使用，并公布评分算法，供其他研究者使用CES-D进行研究。该研究项目的成功完成将为美国老年人抑郁症状随年龄的纵向轨迹提供新的数据和理解，并将导致更大的交叉研究整合项目，将使用CES-D的其他研究联系起来——即使是那些不同的反应量表——或可能提供一些重叠症状覆盖的其他抑郁测量。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The relationship between aging and depression is enigmatic. Epidemiologic studies using standardized diagnostic criteria often report a decreasing prevalence and incidence of depressive disorders with age, even within very old adult age groups. Recent interpretations of available research suggests that age differences in depressive symptoms suggests a lower burden among older adults, perhaps via risk reduction and improvements in emotional resiliency accompanying old age. However, other research has suggested that the burden of depressive symptoms increases with aging. An informed inquiry of how depression relates to age and aging requires longitudinal data collected in a representative sample using established instruments. A resource for furthering our understanding of the relationship between aging and depression is the Health and Retirement Survey (HRS) conducted by the University of Michigan, a large, representative, and longitudinal study that includes a depressive symptom inventory modeled after the Center for Epidemiologic Studies - Depression scale (CES-D). However, longitudinal research using the HRS/CES-D has been hampered because the response scale and symptom coverage varies across study wave. The specific aims of this research project are: (1) to validate a scaling system, grounded in Item Response Theory, that places CES-D responses obtained using different response formats across HRS waves on an equivalent metric, (2) to examine CES-D responses for evidence of differential item functioning (DIF) and determine if patterns of DIF vary by response format, (3) to analyze the course of depressive symptoms in among aging adults, and (4) to archive depression values for HRS respondents for use by other investigators and publish the scoring algorithm for use by investigators in other studies using the CES-D. Successful completion of this research project will provide new data and understanding of the longitudinal trajectory of depressive symptoms with age among older Americans, and will lead to larger cross-study integration projects linking other studies using the CES-D -- even those different response scales -- or possibly other depression measures that provide some overlap of symptom coverage.