Hospital costs associated with depression in a cohort of older men living in Western Australia

Background: There is lack of information of the hospital costs related to depression. Here, we compare the costs associated with general hospital admissions over 2 years between older men with and without a documented past history of depression. Methods: A community-based cohort of older men living in Perth, Western Australia, was assessed at baseline between 2001 and 2004 and followed up for 2 years by prospective data linkage. The participants were selected randomly from the Australia electoral roll. Two-year hospital costs were estimated. Results: Among 5411 patients, 75% of 339 men with depressive symptoms had at least one hospital admission compared with 61% of 5072 men without depression (P