Citation
Simanek, Amanda M.; Zheng, Cheng; Yolken, Robert H.; Haan, Mary N.; & Aiello, Allison E. (2019). A Longitudinal Study of the Association between Persistent Pathogens and Incident Depression among Older US Latinos. Journals of Gerontology Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences, 74(5), 634-641. PMCID: PMC6477673Abstract
Depression is estimated to affect over 6.5 million Americans 65 years of age and older and compared to Non-Latino Whites older US Latinos have a greater incidence and severity of depression, warranting further investigation of novel risk factors for depression onset among this population. We used data on 771/1789 individuals >/= 60 years of age from the Sacramento Area Latino Study on Aging (1998-2008) who were tested for cytomegalovirus (CMV), herpes simplex virus, varicella zoster, Helicobacter pylori, Toxoplasma gondii, and C-reactive protein (CRP) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) level. Among those without elevated depressive symptoms at baseline, we examined the association between each pathogen, inflammatory markers and incident depression over up to approximately nine years of follow-up using discrete time logistic regression. We found that only CMV seropositivity was statistically significantly associated with increased odds of incident depression (odds ratio (OR) 1.38, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.00, 1.90) in the total sample as well as among women only (OR 1.70, 95% CI: 1.01, 2.86). These associations were not mediated by CRP or IL-6 levels. Our findings suggest that CMV seropositivity may serve as an important risk factor for the onset of depression among older US Latinos, but act outside of inflammatory pathways.URL
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/gerona/gly172Reference Type
Journal ArticleYear Published
2019Journal Title
Journals of Gerontology Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical SciencesAuthor(s)
Simanek, Amanda M.Zheng, Cheng
Yolken, Robert H.
Haan, Mary N.
Aiello, Allison E.