Incidence of depression in a medical long-term care facility: Findings from a restricted sample of new admissions

The prevalence rate of depression in medical long-term care facilities is high but varies over a large range. One source of variation may be differences in the underlying incidence rates. A cohort of 104 new admissions was followed for one year and showed and incidence rate of approximately 14%. This rate is comparable to the only other published study and suggests that incidence rates may be more uniform than expected from the range of prevalence reports.