Characteristics of patients 50 years or older with and without depressive symptoms (n=585)
| Total sample (n=585) | Depressive symptoms (n=102) | No depressive symptoms (n=483) | p Value | |
| Age* (years) | 63±7.9 | 61±7.8 | 64±7.9 | <0.01 |
| Female gender (%) | 18 | 28 | 16 | <0.01 |
| Dutch Adult Reading Test score† | 84 (58–98) | 84 (58–96) | 84 (58–98) | 0.80 |
| Education class† | 4 (2–7) | 4 (1–7) | 4 (2–7) | 0.74 |
| Mini-Mental State Examination score† | 29 (27–30) | 29 (26–30) | 29 (27–30) | 0.20 |
| Hypertension (%) | 63 | 63 | 62 | 0.91 |
| Diabetes mellitus (%) | 22 | 31 | 20 | 0.02 |
| Physical functioning† | 52 (34–57) | 43 (28–56) | 53 (36–57) | <0.01 |
| Total intracranial volume* (ml) | 1457±129 | 1437±137 | 1461±127 | 0.09 |
| Brain parenchymal fraction* (%) | 78±2.8 | 78±2.6 | 78±2.8 | 0.20 |
| Ventricular fraction* (%) | 2.3±1.0 | 2.2±1.0 | 2.3±0.9 | 0.48 |
| Cortical grey-matter fraction* (%) | 34±3.4 | 35±3.4 | 34±3.3 | 0.34 |
| Absolute total WML volume† (ml) | 1.5 (0.4–9.9) | 1.4 (0.4–8.3) | 1.6 (0.4–10.2) | 0.47 |
| Absolute periventricular WML volume† (ml) | 1.0 (0.2–5.9) | 0.8 (0.1–5.7) | 1.0 (0.2–6.0) | 0.60 |
| Absolute deep WML volume† (ml) | 0.5 (0.2–3.9) | 0.5 (0.1–2.9) | 0.5 (0.2–4.3) | 0.67 |
| Presence of cerebral infarcts (%) | ||||
| Cortical infarct | 14 | 17 | 14 | 0.43 |
| Subcortical infarct | 1 | 4 | 1 | 0.02 |
| Lacunar infarct | 23 | 22 | 23 | 0.80 |
| Patient Health Questionnaire-9 score† | 1 (0–8) | 8 (6–13) | 1 (0–4) | <0.01 |
| History of depressive episode before age 50 (%) | 29 | 45 | 26 | <0.01 |
Presence of depressive symptoms is defined as a Patient Health Questionnaire-9 score ≥6.
* Mean±SD.
† Median (10th–90th percentile).
WML, white-matter lesion.