Socioeconomic Factors, Comorbidities Tied to Late-Onset Depression in Long-Term Cancer Survivors

TUESDAY, Dec. 9, 2025 (HealthDay News) -- Socioeconomic vulnerability and multiple medical comorbidities are risk factors for late-onset depression among long-term cancer survivors, according to a study published online Nov. 26 in JAMA Network Open.Melissa Taylor, M.D., from Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut, and colleagues examined sociodemographic and clinical characteristics associated with late-onset depression in long-term cancer survivors. The analysis included 53,769 five-year cancer survivors of breast, prostate, or colorectal cancer aged 66 years and older with no previous depression diagnosis identified from the 2022 linked Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results and Medicare databases.The researchers found that the five-year risk for late-onset depression was highest in breast cancer survivors (13.3 percent) versus prostate (8.7 percent) or colorectal (11.8 percent) cancer survivors. For some categories, older age was associated with a greater hazard of depression (e.g., prostate cancer survivors aged 90 years and older versus 71 to 74 years: hazard ratio [HR], 1.57; 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 1.10 to 2.24) but it was not associated among others (e.g., colorectal cancer survivors aged 90 years and older versus 71 to 74 years: HR, 1.02; 95 percent CI, 0.84 to 1.24). Medicare-Medicaid dual eligibility (e.g., dual-eligible breast cancer survivors versus non-dual-eligible: HR, 1.38; 95 percent CI, 1.22 to 1.57), anxiety (e.g., prostate cancer survivors: HR, 2.82; 95 percent CI, 2.47 to 3.22), and comorbidity burden (e.g., breast cancer survivors: HR, 1.33; 95 percent CI, 1.12 to 1.57) were consistently associated with greater depression risk. Among prostate cancer survivors, receiving radiotherapy with or without androgen deprivation therapy was also associated with higher late-onset depression risk (HR, 1.22; 95 percent CI, 1.10 to 1.36)."These risk factors may be used to proactively inform survivorship care during the transition from cancer surveillance to preventive care, which could reduce the risk of inconsistent follow-up care for survivors that may drive socioeconomic and racial and ethnic disparities in depression screening and treatment," the authors write.Two authors disclosed ties to the pharmaceutical industry.Abstract/Full Text.Sign up for our weekly HealthDay newsletter

Socioeconomic Factors, Comorbidities Tied to Late-Onset Depression in Long-Term Cancer Survivors

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