Physical function, cognitive function, and depressive symptoms in elderly women with dysmobility syndrome

Abstract

The objective of this study was to examine the relationship between physical and cognitive functions and depressive symptoms in elderly women with dysmobility syndrome. For this study, data on 6,070 elderly women were used and 43 of these women had dysmobility syndrome. The tools used in this study were the Physical Functioning (PF) Scale, Mini-Mental State Examination-Korean Version (MMSE-K), and the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D)-short form. The level of physical function was significantly lower in the dysmobility syndrome group than in the normal group equivalents. Depressive symptoms were significantly negatively correlated with physical function and each of its sub-categories in the dysmobility syndrome group. Multiple regression analysis results indicated that the only predictor of depressive symptoms among elderly women with dysmobility syndrome was PF 5 (the muscle strength of the upper limbs, β = −3.031, P = 0.004), which explained 41.4% of the variance in depressive symptoms (F = 6.985, P < 0.001). The analysis of newly suggested dysmobility syndrome-related factors is expected to help assess health status of elderly people.