Beschreibung:
<jats:sec><jats:title>Background</jats:title><jats:p>Little research has been done on the uniqueness of risk profiles for depression and anxiety in late life.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Aims</jats:title><jats:p>Delineating risk factors for the decline of mental health in older persons, comparing risk profiles for developing symptoms of pure depression, pure anxiety and both anxiety and depression in a prospective design.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Method</jats:title><jats:p>Self-Report data on depression and anxiety were collected from community-dwelling older respondents (⩾55 years) on two occasions, 3 years apart. Data from emotionally healthy respondents (<jats:italic>n</jats:italic>=1810) were used to investigate the effects of long-standing vulnerability factors and stressful life events.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results</jats:title><jats:p>After 3 years 9% of the subjects had scored beyond the thresholds for symptoms. Vulnerability for depression and anxiety was quite similar, but life events differed: onset of depression was predicted by death of a partner or other relatives; onset of anxiety was best predicted by having a partner who developed a major illness. No support for moderator effects between vulnerability factors and stress was found; the effects were purely additive.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Conclusions</jats:title><jats:p>Depression and anxiety have many risk factors in common, but specific risk factors also were found, especially in subjects developing both depression and anxiety.</jats:p></jats:sec>