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Objectives: Physical activity (PA) may counteract depressive symptoms in nursing home (NH) residents considering biological, psychological, and person-environment transactional pathways. Empirical results, however, have remained inconsistent. Addressing potential shortcomings of previous research, we examined the effect of a whole-ecology PA intervention program on NH residents' depressive symptoms using generalized linear mixed-models (GLMMs)., Method: We used longitudinal data from residents of two German NHs who were included without any pre-selection regarding physical and mental functioning (n = 163, M age = 83.1, 53-100 years; 72% female) and assessed on four occasions each three months apart. Residents willing to participate received a 12-week PA training program. Afterwards, the training was implemented in weekly activity schedules by NH staff. We ran GLMMs to account for the highly skewed depressive symptoms outcome measure (12-item Geriatric Depression Scale-Residential) by using gamma distribution., Results: Exercising (n = 78) and non-exercising residents (n = 85) showed a comparable level of depressive symptoms at pretest. For exercising residents, depressive symptoms stabilized between pre-, posttest, and at follow-up, whereas an increase was observed for non-exercising residents. The intervention group's stabilization in depressive symptoms was maintained at follow-up, but increased further for non-exercising residents., Conclusion: Implementing an innovative PA intervention appears to be a promising approach to prevent the increase of NH residents' depressive symptoms. At the data-analytical level, GLMMs seem to be a promising tool for intervention research at large, because all longitudinally available data points and non-normality of outcome data can be considered.

Background: Depressive symptoms are highly prevalent in nursing home (NH) residents. The relationship between depressive symptoms and everyday competence in terms of basic (BaCo) and expanded everyday competence (ExCo; see Baltes et al., 2001) in the NH setting is, however, not clear. Applying Lewinsohn's depression model, we examined how residents' BaCo and ExCo relate to their depressive symptoms. Furthermore, we investigated the mediating role of perceived control., Methods: Cross-sectional data from 196 residents (M age = 83.7 years, SD = 9.4 years) of two German NHs were analyzed. Study variables were assessed by the Geriatric Depression Scale-Residential (GDS-12R), maximal gait speed (BaCo), proxy ratings of residents' in-home activity participation, and self-initiated social contact done by staff (ExCo). Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used and a simulation study was included to determine power and potential estimation bias., Results: At the descriptive level, one quarter of the residents showed symptoms of depression according to the GDS-12R cut-off criterion. Residents' BaCo and ExCo were independently and equally strongly associated with their depressive symptoms in the SEM analysis. These findings were affected neither by cognitive impairment, sex, nor age. Perceived control mediated between BaCo but not ExCo and depressive symptoms., Conclusion: Future research needs to follow the connection between residents' everyday competence and their depressive symptoms longitudinally to better understand the underlying mechanisms.

This article examines the end-of-life development of depressive symptoms and characterizes prototypical groups following the same depressive symptoms development. We modeled time-to-death-related trajectories of depressive symptoms (Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale), applying a latent class growth analysis to deceased older adults from the English Longitudinal Study of Aging (Waves 1 to 5; NTime 1 (T1) = 2,219; MAge(T1) = 73.9 years, SDAge(T1) = 9.4 years; 51% male, 1% non-White). Four prototypical trajectories of depressive symptoms were identified at the end of life: a stably nondepressed group (31.2%); 2 groups with an exponential terminal symptom increase, of which 1 was nondepressed and 1 low depressed (8.3% and 38.4%, respectively); and a stably depressed group (22.2%). Using a combination of growth curve models and individual level and slope values as predictor variables showed that individuals suffering from increasing sensory, mobility, or overall health problems or decreasing quality of life were more likely to have an increase in symptoms of depression in their last years of life. Men were more likely to be stably nondepressed and women more likely to be chronically depressed. We conclude that a group-based analysis of end-of-life depressive symptoms is useful in adding to the understanding of distance-to-death psychology at large as well as pointing to preventive and intervention strategies when it comes to late-life depressive mood. (PsycINFO Database Record, ((c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).)

Objectives: The life-span theory of control is applied to study change in vision-specific control strategies in visually impaired older individuals, depending on performance in instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) and depressed mood., Method: Longitudinal data from visually impaired individuals (at baseline: N = 364; mean age = 82.8 years; visual acuity less than 20/60) measured at three occasions with 1-year intervals in-between were analyzed. A newly established vision-specific control scale to assess selective primary control (SPC), selective secondary control (SSC), compensatory primary control (CPC), and compensatory secondary control (CSC) was used. Linear and nonlinear (quadratic and piecewise) generalized mixed models with gamma response distribution to fit the skewed data were applied., Results: CPC progressively increased as IADL capacity decreased up to a turning point, at which CPC plateaued, whereas all other strategies declined linearly with IADL decrease. Controlling for depressed mood did not change these relationships for CPC, SPC, and SSC but absorbed IADL-related decline of CSC. Higher depression was associated with less SPC, SSC, and CSC, but only slightly with less CPC., Discussion: IADL plays an important role triggering a shift in adaptational strategies from selective control to CPC in visually impaired older adults and possibly other disabled populations.