Prevalence and factors associated to depression among geriatric population in a rural area of Kanyakumari district Tamil Nadu

Abstract

Background: Aging is a universal process. It has been documented that elderly are more prone to psychological problems and depression is the commonest geriatric psychiatric disorder. In India the prevalence of depression among elderly population between 13% and 25%. Depression usually becomes unnoticed and untreated in the elderly. Depression in late life is associated with significant morbidity including deficits in a range of cognitive functions, functional impairment, decreased quality of life, increased rate of suicide. The objectives of this study was to find out the prevalence of depression and its risk factors in geriatric population.Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted from March 2017 to August 2017 among 75 elderly people who were attending the rural health centre Marappadi were included for the study. Depression was assessed by Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS).Results: The mean age of the participants were 72.63. Majority of them were females (56%). Most of them had middle school education (48 %) and 77.3% belong to joint family. The overall prevalence of depression in the study population was 76%. 30.7% of the elderly had severe depression and 16% are having moderate depression. There is significant association between depression with female sex, primary education, marital status, lower socio-economic status and presence of chronic illness.Conclusions: This study indicates high prevalence of depression in elderly population. Female sex, unemployment, marital status as married and joint family are the risk factors of depression in geriatric population.

Prevalence of Geriatric Depression and Associated Factors in Kalika Rural Municipality of Rasuwa District, Nepal

“…Contextual characteristics such as family support, good communication among family members, and family decision-making roles were also associated to depression. However, sex and individual factors such as cigarette use, alcohol consumption, and the presence of chronic disease were not associated to geriatric depression, which is consistent with earlier findings; a study conducted by Shrestha, Shrestha [6] found an association between the presence of chronic disease and depression and no association between age and depression, John and Nath [19] found type of family associated with depression but age was not associated, Bineetha, Vijayakumar [20] found sex, alcohol and tobacco consumption were not associated with depression, but that being unemployed was, Manandhar, Risal [1] found sex, alcohol consumption were not associated with depression, but that having a chronic health problem and physical capability were. Similarly, other studies have found that family support, living with children, stress, a lack of decision-making, and family income are all strongly associate to depression [1,2,21].…”