Five-year changes of social activity and incident long-term care needs among depressed older adults: A 15-year follow up.

• Social activities involved social-related, learning, and personal activities. • Increased learning activities reduce the risk of LTC needs in depressed older adults. • Increased learning activities prolong depressed older adults LTC-needs-free survival. To examine the effects of changes in individual/multiple social activities between 65 and 70 years of age on incident long-term care (LTC) needs between 70 and 80 in older adults with depressive symptoms. Participants were recruited from the New Integrated Suburban Seniority Investigation Project, an ongoing prospective cohort study. A total of 525 older adults with depressive symptoms were included. The validated 15-item Geriatric Depression Scale was used to assess depressive symptoms. A self-report questionnaire was used to measure social activities (social-related, learning, and personal). LTC needs was defined according to Japan's Long-term Care Insurance System. A competing risk model and a Laplace regression model were used to estimate the hazard ratios of LTC needs incidence and the 25th percentile difference in LTC-needs-free survival time and their 95% confidence intervals. Out of 4314 person-years of mild LTC needs, 108 individuals developed it. Participants who increased their frequency of learning activities have a lower risk of developing mild LTC needs. Increasing the frequency could also prolong LTC-needs-free survival time by approximately 2.61 years. Out of 4535 person-years for severe LTC needs, 54 individuals developed it. Participants with a continuous regular frequency of learning activities had a lower risk of developing severe LTC needs. However, the association between this frequency and LTC-needs-free survival time for severe LTC needs was insignificant in the multivariable models. Increased frequency of learning activities reduced the risk of LTC needs among older adults with depressive symptoms and prolonged their LTC-needs-free survival time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]