Researchers should therefore base their choice of methods on their team's expertise and data resources, rather than on performance considerations alone. Univariate and multiple-linear regression analysis showed that the level of fatigue after one month were significantly improved for the group who received iron in comparison with the placebo group (p = 0.0049). This improvement was independent of the depression or anxiety scores. Interestingly, among the women in the iron group, the best predictor of response (in a regression analysis) was the amount of iron consumed and not the serum ferritin at baseline (p= 0.007). After the first month , the patients who received iron because of a low level of ferritin were greatly improved at 3 months in comparison with no treatment at all (p = 0.0005). CONCLUSION: Iron supplementation even in the absence of anemia may be beneficial to women complaining of unexplained fatigue. PURPOSE: Some previous studies have found that depressive symptoms predict coronary artery disease. This association has been less strong and not as well studied in women, especially older women. Our aim was to analyze prospective data from a cohort of older women to determine if depressive symptoms predict myocardial ischemia or infarction. METHODS: The Fracture Intervention Trial (FIT) was a multicenter randomized control trial of alendronate vs. placebo among 6459 women with low bone mass 55-80 years of age. At baseline, each participant was examined and completed an extensive questionnaire that included the 16 item Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS). The 140 women with a previous myocardial infarction (MI) were excluded from this analysis. Over a mean follow-up of 4.25 years, 77 women had fatal or non-fatal MIs, and an additional 102 had ischemic events/unstable angina. Medical records, discharge summaries, and death certificates were collected from each event, and were blindly adjudicated by 3 cardiologists. Relative hazard models, adjusted for potential confounders, were used to model the association between GDS scores and documented cardiovascular events. Results are reported as relative risk and 95% confidence intervals. RESULTS: Mean GDS (SD) was 1.52.0, and 168 (5%) reported 5 or more depressive symptoms. In age-adjusted analyses, a GDS score of 5 or more was associated with a trend towards increased MI and acute myocardial ischemia. After adjustment for age, self-reported health, BMI, smoking, alcohol consumption, exercise, hypertension, stroke, diabetes, and use of estrogen, however, there was no longer an association between depressive symptoms and subsequent ischemia or MI (Table 1) . CONCLUSION: In this cohort of older women, there was no significant association between depressive symptoms and subsequent myocardial ischemia and/or infarction when the data was adjusted for potential confounders.