Original Research Article
Year: 2018 | Month: October | Volume: 8 | Issue: 10 | Pages: 161-171
A Cross-Sectional Study to Assess Depression and Its Associated Factors among Elderly People
Debajani Sahoo
Assistant Professor of Nursing (Mental Health Nursing), VISWASS, College of Nursing, Bhubaneswar, Odisha
ABSTRACT
Globally, the population is ageing rapidly. Between 2015 and 2050, the proportion of the world’s population over 60 years will nearly double, from 12% to 22%, in numbers it is from 900 million (2015) to 2 billion in 2050. Most commonly dementia and depression affect approximately 5% and 7% respectively to this age group. Mental health problems are under-identified by health-care professionals and older people themselves, and the stigma surrounding these conditions makes people reluctant to seek help. Aspire of this study was to assess the prevalence of depression and its associated factors in terms of their vigour of influence as depression on elderly in Odisha. An internationally validated semi-structured questionnaire Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) - Short form with a structured questionnaire was administered to 300 elderly residing in Ganjam district of Odisha. Based on this cross sectional descriptive survey approximately 58 % of elderly people were depressed. And among the depressed 37 % of elderly were under suggestive depression and 21 % were under indicative depression as per the GDS. Some of the most influencing factors were increasing age, female gender, no formal education, unemployment, low Per capita income, living in rented house, widow / widower group, elderly living in extended family, those were staying alone, those faced vital events within 2-5 years, suffering from physical illnesses, neuro-psychiatric illnesses, habit of using cigarette and those were using addictive substances since 6-9 years.
Key words: Depression, Elderly, Associated-factors (Physical, Mental, Social)s