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	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

We have read with interest the article by Schulz et al¹ on the association between depression and mortality in older adults. The authors conclude that high levels of depressive symptoms are an independent risk factor for mortality in community-residing older adults.

We would like to contribute to this topic by presenting data of a study² carried out in Italy and taking into account 2 important aspects that Schulz et al¹ seem to have disregarded, ie, disability and cognitive impairment. In fact, these clinical conditions are known to be associated with both depression and mortality and are also confounders of the association between depression and mortality.

The data were obtained in a multidimensional study carried out in a community-dwelling population aged 70 and older living in the rural city of Ospitaletto, Brescia, in northern Italy.² Of 613 elderly persons (aged >70 years) recorded in the local registry office, 37 refused to . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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