Diabetes Care 30:1473-1479, 2007 DOI: 10.2337/dc06-2313 © 2007 by the American Diabetes Association
A Cohort Study of People With Diabetes and Their First Foot UlcerThe role of depression on mortality
1 Department of Psychological Medicine, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, London, U.K Address correspondence and reprint requests to Khalida Ismail, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, Weston Education Centre, 10 Cutcombe Rd., London, SE5 9RJ, U.K. E-mail: khalida.ismail{at}iop.kcl.ac.uk
OBJECTIVEThe aim was to evaluate over 18 months whether depression was associated with mortality in people with their first foot ulcer. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODSA prospective cohort design was used. Adults with their first diabetic foot ulcer were recruited from foot clinics in southeast London, U.K. At baseline, the Schedules for Clinical Assessment in Neuropsychiatry 2.1 was used to define those who met DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders)-IV criteria for minor and major depressive disorders. Potential covariates were age, sex, marital status, socioeconomic status, smoking, antidepressant use, A1C, macro- and microvascular complications, and University of Texas classificationbased severity and size of ulcer. The main outcome was mortality 18 months later, and A1C was the secondary outcome. The proportion who had an amputation, had recurrence, and whose ulcer had healed was recorded. RESULTSA total of 253 people with their first diabetic foot ulcer were recruited. The prevalence of minor and major depressive disorder was 8.1% (n = 21) and 24.1% (n = 61), respectively. There were 40 (15.8%) deaths, 36 (15.5%) amputations, and 99 (43.2%) recurrences. In the adjusted Cox regression analysis, minor and major depressive disorders were associated with an approximately threefold hazard risk for mortality compared with no depression (3.23 [95% CI 1.397.51] and 2.73 [1.385.40], respectively). There was no association between minor and major depression compared with no depression and A1C (P = 0.86 and P = 0.43, respectively). CONCLUSIONSOne-third of people with their first diabetic foot ulcer suffer from clinical depression, and this is associated with increased mortality.
Abbreviations: DSM, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders SCAN 2.1, Schedules for Clinical Assessment in Neuropsychiatry 2.1
Diabetic foot ulcers are one of the most common, disabling, and costly complications of diabetes (13). The incidence and prevalence for foot ulcers is estimated at 2% and 57% per year, respectively (3,4). Duration of diabetes, persistent hyperglycemia, and peripheral neuropathy (associated with reduced pain sensation) are considered to be well-known biological risk factors for the onset and recurrence of foot ulcers (57). Primary and secondary prevention of diabetic foot ulcers can be achieved by daily foot examinations for painless ulcers or injuries, regular podiatrist visits, use of appropriate foot wear, and maintenance of optimal diabetes self-care (8). Despite this, adverse outcomes following the onset of foot ulcers are poor, and they are the most common reason for amputation (9). The rate of recurrence of foot ulcers is estimated at 34, 61, and 70% in 1, 3, and 5 years, respectively (1). Around 15% develop osteomyelitis, and there is a twofold increase in mortality compared with people with diabetes without a foot ulcer (3,10,11). Could psychological factors such as depressive disorders help to explain the high rates of mortality and morbidity? The pooled prevalence of depressive disorders in people with diabetes when diagnostic criteria are used is estimated at 11%, which is two times more common than the general population, and the estimated pooled prevalence of depressive symptoms using self-report measures is 31% (12). In cross-sectional studies (13,14), depressive disorders and symptoms are associated with poor glycemic control and complications. Emerging evidence from the U.S. shows that depressive symptoms are associated with increased mortality in diabetes, including a dose-responsetype association with severity of depression (1520) based on self-reported measures of depression and/or diabetes. The received wisdom is that the mediating mechanism is via glycemic control, but prospective evidence for this association is still lacking (21). People with early diabetic foot disease are likely to fear the worst, such as gangrene or loss of a limb, but there is little epidemiological evidence to support the role of psychological factors on adverse outcomes (15,19). Depression, which can be treated, often goes undetected in people with diabetes, and, even when detected, treatment is not optimized (22). Our main hypothesis was that in people with diabetes, depression was associated with increased risk of mortality following the onset of their first foot ulcer compared with those who were not depressed. The secondary hypothesis was that depression was prospectively associated with worsening glycemic control.
The study protocol was approved by the ethics committees of the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, and the local participating National Health Service trusts. All participants gave written informed consent.
A population-based cohort of adults, aged
We screened all people presenting with their first ulcer within the sampling frame. They were identified through a rotating review of the preceding fortnight of new and follow-up appointments at each clinic. After an introduction by the podiatrist, the researcher contacted the patient for an appointment to obtain informed consent and used a standardized checklist to assess for study eligibility. We invited all of those eligible to participate. We defined a clinically significant diabetic foot ulcer as follows: 1) the ulceration was in the anatomical foot, 2) there had to be a full-thickness break in the epithelium with a minimum width of 5 mm, and 3) the arm-to-ankle ratio was
Main explanatory variable
Main outcome measures
Potential covariates
Statistical analysis
At baseline, univariate associations between the association of baseline and minor and major depressive disorders compared with no depression and potential explanatory variables were calculated. Cox proportional hazards regression was used to study the relationship between baseline DSM-IV minor and major depressive disorders compared with no depression, with the binary outcome of mortality adjusting for baseline potential covariates that were either significantly associated with depression or were clinically important, such as macrovascular complications and type of diabetes, and presented as hazard ratios and 95% CIs. The estimated survival curve was reported such that the adjusted hazard ratios were standardized (in other words, all things being equal) by the average values of those covariates that were included in the final prediction model (except for severity of ulcer in which case we standardized as if the ulcer was severe [University of Texas grade 2 or 3]). The regression was repeated using depression as a continuous variable. In a secondary analysis, missing observations of mean A1C were replaced with estimates using the expectation maximization imputation method. Quadratic effect of A1C was also assessed in the regression model to assess if this improved the fit. The overall fit of the model was assessed using Cox-Snell generalized residual analysis (not presented), and robust standard errors were used to adjust for potential misspecification (39). To examine change in A1C over time in minor and major depressive disorders compared with those who were not depressed, taking into account the baseline A1C and other covariates, we did an ANCOVA. The association between mortality with amputation, recurrence, and healing status was assessed using the The calculation of the sample size was based on the pooled prevalence of major depression of 14%, based on contemporaneous pooled data (40) that 30% of the nondepressed subjects would have an adverse outcome such as a recurrence of foot ulcer 18 months later (1), a risk ratio of 2.00 as the minimum clinically significant effect of major depression, a two-tailed type 1 error of 0.05, and a power of 80%. We estimated that 162 nondepressed and 27 depressed subjects were needed. Anticipating a drop-out rate of 25%, our final estimated sample was 250 subjects.
A total of 262 patients presented with their first diabetic foot ulcer. Two hundred and sixty met the study criteria, and of these 253 consented and constituted the cohort. Our follow-up rates were 100% for mortality outcome; 92.0, 93.7, and 90.5% for amputation (n = 233), healing (n = 237), and recurrence (n = 229), respectively; and 72.3% for A1C at 18 months (including those whose A1C was missing because they had died at 18 months). There were six (2.4%) patients for whom there was no A1C measurement at any time point. There was 90% agreement for major depressive disorder based on the 10 interviews conducted by the two SCAN 2.1 raters. The baseline characteristics of the cohort are reported in Table 1. Ten patients were prescribed an antidepressant (tricyclic [n = 7] and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor [n = 3]), 6 of 10 had major depressive disorder, and the remaining 4 had no depression. People with major depressive disorder were more likely to be younger and have more severe and larger baseline ulcers (Table 1) than those who were not depressed. People with minor depressive disorder were more likely to have a larger baseline ulcer than those who were not depressed. There were no differences in the diet, exercise, and foot care subscales of the Summary of Diabetes Self-Care Activities scores between the three categories of depression, except that people with major depressive disorder were less likely to adhere to their diet compared with those with no depression (P = 0.002).
During the 18 months of follow-up, there were 40 (15.8%) deaths. All deaths were due to natural causes such as infection (n = 14), cardiovascular disease (n = 10), cerebrovascular accident (n = 10), cancer (n = 4), renal failure (n = 1), and complications from liver disease (n = 1). Of 10 people who had been prescribed an antidepressant, only 1 died. No patients were receiving any psychological treatments. In the Cox regression analysis (n = 246), after adjusting for covariates (age, University of Texas severity, sex, smoking, mean A1C, marital status, and socioeconomic status) baseline minor and major depressive disorders were both significantly associated with an approximately threefold increase in the likelihood of death (hazard ratio 3.23 [95% CI 1.397.51] and 2.73 [1.385.40], respectively) (Fig. 1) compared with those who had no depression. The only other covariates that were significantly associated with mortality were age (1.08 [1.051.11]) and, inversely, mean A1C (0.74 [0.560.99]). The association between minor and major depressive disorder compared with no depression with mortality did not significantly change if the presence of macrovascular complications (3.25 [1.397.62] and 2.74 [1.385.44], respectively) or type of diabetes (3.25 [1.397.64] and 2.73 [1.385.40], respectively) were added to the model. Adding mean A1C as a quadratic term did not improve the fit. A missing value analysis replacing six missing values for mean A1C did not alter the results. There was a significant association between depression, when measured as a continuous variable, and mortality (1.03 [1.011.06], P = 0.009; n = 213).
During the 18-month follow-up, the proportion who underwent their first amputation was 15.5% (n = 36) (all due to diabetic foot disease) and those who had their first recurrence was 43.2% (n = 99). The coefficients of association, , of mortality with amputation, healing, and recurrence were of small effect sizes: 0.04 (P = 0.81), 0.24 (P < 0.001), and 0.25 (P < 0.001), respectively. At 18 months, mean A1C for no depression (n = 127), minor depressive disorder (n = 11), and major depressive disorder (n = 42) was 8.2 ± 1.8%, 8.2 ± 1.8%, and 8.6 ± 1.9%, respectively. In ANCOVA, when adjusted for baseline A1C and the covariates used in the survival analysis, the association between minor and major depressive disorders with A1C at 18 months was not significant when compared with no depression (adjusted mean differences 0.1% [95% CI 0.9 to 1.1] and 0.2% [0.4 to 0.8], respectively). There was also no difference between major depressive and minor depressive disorders at baseline and 18-month A1C (0.2% [1.0 to 1.3]).
We found that one-third of people presenting with their first diabetic foot ulcer had clinically significant depression (combining minor and major depressive disorders), and this was associated with an approximately threefold increased risk of death 18 months later. There was no association between depression at baseline and glycemic control 18 months later. The advantages of this study is that it was representative of hospital and community settings practicing a similar model of medical care for foot ulcers in a diverse socioeconomic and ethnic population. We used a standardized semistructured psychiatric interview to generate the diagnosis of depression based on an internationally recognized psychiatric classification. We captured the dimensional nature of depression by including minor and major depressive disorders and by deriving a continuous measure of depressive symptoms from the raw scores. The prospective design as well as podiatrists remaining blind to depression status aimed to reduce bias in the assessment of outcomes. We achieved excellent follow-up rates for mortality, but there were missing data for the 18-month A1C, which was partly attributable to the high rates of mortality. This may have led to biased estimates of the association between depression and glycemic control. The limitations of our study are that we may have missed a small group of institutionalized or house-bound people, those whose ulcer was not accurately recorded or diagnosed by the podiatrist, and those who did not attend appointments. There is a small possibility of residual confounding from other diabetes complications and related conditions, but this is unlikely as we explored this in the modeling stage and we adjusted for the University of Texas classification and for macrovascular complications. We did not measure the presence of related depressive syndromes that do not meet the criteria for minor or major depressive disorders, such as adjustment disorders and dysthymia, but this was unlikely to alter our findings as the prevalence of these disorders is approximately six times lower than major depressive disorders, and they have significant comorbidity with major depression (41,42). The high rates of depression are in keeping with the literature that people with diabetes and complications are about two to three times more likely to have depressive disorders, even when diagnostic criteria are used, and depressive symptoms than those without complications (14). Why do patients with depression and diabetes have a significantly increased risk of death compared with those who are not depressed? One possibility is that depression may lead to behavioral difficulties in adhering to the intensive medical regime, as reported in cross-sectional community studies (43). There are several reasons why this mechanism is not the whole story. First, there was no association between depression at baseline and glycemic control 18 months later, which is contrary to pooled data from cross-sectional studies (13). Second, behavioral difficulties secondary to depression do not fully explain the increased mortality in people with other chronic diseases. In a prospective study, unhealthy lifestyles and poor adherence were not sufficient explanations for increased mortality in people with depressive symptoms and cardiovascular disease (44). In our study, we also did not find a consistent association between depression and diabetes self-care, but this may have been partly due to the well-recognized difficulties of subjective measures of adherence. Third, the possibility of competing events, which are events that prevent or modify the occurrence of other events, may have been present (45), such as whether amputation led to increased or decreased risk of mortality, although in our correlational analysis we did not observe any associations between morbidity outcomes and mortality. Although there is emerging evidence that depression increases mortality and morbidity in people with diabetes, the mediating mechanisms are less clear. Some large-scale population-based prospective studies have reported that minor and major depression is associated with increased mortality in people with diabetes (17,18,20), but in randomized controlled trials of interventions for depression in diabetes, whereas depression scores tend to improve, glycemic control does not always improve (4653). Several alternative pathophysiological processes that have been proposed to explain the increased mortality in people with depressive disorders and cardiac mortality (44,54,55) may also apply to diabetes. Mechanisms proposed include decreased heart rate variability secondary to changes in autonomic tone (56), perhaps secondary to diabetic autonomic neuropathy; impairment of platelet function (57); cytokine activation (58,59); and activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (60), which may increase the susceptibility to infection and cardiovascular disease, which were the most common causes of death in this study (61). Antidepressants, especially tricyclics, are cardiotoxic, but in our study antidepressant prescribing was very low and there was only one death while on antidepressants (55). We did not observe a difference between minor and major depression in the risk of mortality, which is in contrast to findings in community samples (18). This was substantiated by the positive association between depressive symptoms and mortality. One possible explanation is that depression in people with diabetes complications may have a chronic and/or fluctuating course, as they have a greater burden of disease. The handful of studies on the course of depression suggest that it is chronic and disabling in diabetes (62,63). Our study demonstrates that a quarter of those presenting with their first diabetic foot ulcer are suffering from a major depressive disorder, a further 8% have a minor depressive disorder, and both are associated with around a threefold-increased mortality compared with those who are not depressed. Improvements in the screening, detection, and treatment of depression in this high-risk group could potentially lead to improved psychological and physical outcomes.
The funding body was not involved in the design and conduct of the study; the collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of the data; or the preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript. We thank the Wellcome Trust for funding this project. We thank Maureen Bates and Melanie Doxford, Diabetic Foot Clinic, King's College Hospital, and Ian Aitkenhead for their time and thoughts at the pilot stage. We also thank all the participating patients and staff for their time. We thank Professor Traolach Brugha and Dr. Trevor Hill, University of Leicester, U.K., for converting the SCAN 2.1 raw scores. Parts of this article were presented at the 42nd European Association for the Study of Diabetes Annual Meeting, Copenhagen-Malmoe, Denmark-Sweden, 1417 September 2006.
Published ahead of print at http://care.diabetesjournals.org on 15 March 2007. DOI: 10.2337/dc06-2313. A table elsewhere in this issue shows conventional and Système International (SI) units and conversion factors for many substances. The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked "advertisement" in accordance with 18 U.S.C Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact. Received for publication November 10, 2006. Accepted for publication March 7, 2007.
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