LIVERPOOL, England, March 8 (UPI) -- A British study showed 41 percent of elderly people with depression are often readmitted to the hospital with other illnesses.
"The project has shown depression is common in older people with physical ill health, recently discharged from medical care," Ken Wilson of the University of Liverpool said in a statement.
"It is often undiagnosed, and both patients and doctors confuse it with other illnesses or general signs of aging. This can have detrimental impact on life expectancy and the likelihood of going back into hospital."
The study was of 300 people age 75 and over who had all been discharged from the hospital. Seventeen percent were found to have previously undiagnosed depression, and of that amount, 7 percent died within two years of leaving the hospital.
