Depression and Cardiovascular Burden in Aging Populations

Depression and cardiovascular disease (CVD) commonly co-occur in adults aged ≥50 years and older, yet the relationship between depressive symptom frequency and specific cardiovascular outcomes remains underexplored. The objective of this study was to investigate the association between symptom frequency and CVD across demographic and behavioral subgroups. We analyzed data from 16,257 participants aged ≥50 years in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2010-2020). Depressive symptoms were categorized by self-reported frequency. CVD outcomes included coronary heart disease (CHD), myocardial infarction (MI), angina, and congestive heart failure (CHF). Survey-weighted logistic regression models estimated adjusted odds ratios (ORs) for cardiovascular outcomes by depressive symptom frequency, stratified by sex, race/ethnicity, body mass index (BMI), and smoking status.