Interaction between Depressive Symptoms and Activities of Daily Living with Cognitive Impairment: A Structural Equation Model with Results from the SABE Bogotá Study.

Objective: Analyze the interaction between depressive symptomatology, instrumental and basic activities of daily living and cognitive impairment in a sample of elderly Colombians over 60 years of age by conducting a binary logistic regression and a structural equations model.

Method: A secondary analysis was performed with data from the study "SABE" from 2012, which included 1957 people from Bogotá, Colombia. The sampling was probabilistic, clustered and stratified. The instruments used were the Mini-Mental State Assessment (MMSE), the Lawton-Brody Scale, the Barthel Index and the Geriatric Depression Scale. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were performed.

Results: Bivariate analyses revealed differences in performance between groups. The binary logistic regression model explained 42.3 % of the variance. Based on these findings, a structural equation model (SEM) was developed, which yielded the following fit indices: CMIN/gl = 4.81, GFI = .98, CFI = .97 and RMSEA = .04 [.039; .049]. The results show that IADL contribute most significantly to cognitive impairment, while depressive symptomatology and BADL contribute the least.

Conclusions: Results suggest that depressive symptomatology and alterations in IADL/BADL are key factors to address in cognitive impairment, which highlights their importance in the context of mental and physical healthcare for the Colombian elderly population.