Incremental decreases in quality-adjusted life years (QALY) associated with higher levels of depressive symptoms for U.S. Adults aged 65 years and older

Table 3 Decrease in Quality-adjusted Life Years (QALY) throughout remainder of lifetime due to Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and to Mild Depression, U.S. Adults Aged 65 Years and Older

PHQ-9 score	Depression severity categories	Number	QALY^a	S.E.	Loss^b	S.E.	% Loss
0–9	No MDD	3,357	12.7	1.1	Ref	-	-
10–27	MDD^c	173	4.4	0.9	8.3	1.2	65%
	Subcategories of MDD
10–14	Moderate	122	4.7	0.7	8.0	1.1	63%
15–27	Moderately severe/severe	51	3.3	1.3	9.4	1.6	74%
0–4	None-minimal	2,863	14.0	1.4	Ref	-	-
5–9	Mild depression	494	7.8	1.0	6.2	1.3	44%
5–27	Mild depression or MDD	667	6.5	0.8	7.5	1.3	54%

^a Quality-adjusted life years (QALY) throughout remainder of lifetime, adjusted for age and sex in subgroups
^b Decrease in QALY for higher levels depressive symptoms vs. lower level depressive symptoms
^c Major depressive disorder (MDD)

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