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The purpose of these analyses was to test the hypothesis that depressive symptomatology affects the risk of onset of physical disability in high-functioning elderly adults. The data come from the MacArthur Study of Successful Aging, a community-based cohort of high-functioning adults aged 70 through 79 years who were assessed twice at a 2.5-year interval. Physical and cognitive status was assessed by performance as well as by self-report measures. In gender-stratified logistic regression models, high depressive symptoms as measured by the depression subscale of the Hopkins Symptom Checklist were associated with an increased risk of onset of disability in activities of daily living for both men and women, adjusting for baseline sociodemographic factors, physical health status, and cognitive functioning. Joined with evidence that physical disability is a …