Proportion and Factors Associated with Depressive Symptoms among Elderly in an Urban Slum in Bangalore

Abstract

Depression among elderly is emerging as an important public health issue in developing countries like India. Published evidence regarding the magnitude and determinants of depression among elderly hailing from urban slum is currently limited. Hence, the current study was conducted to assess magnitude of the problem and identify factors associated with depression among the elderly in an urban slum. A cross-sectional study was done to cover total of473 elderly persons from an urban slum in Bangalore, India. They were assessed for depression using Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale. The overall prevalence of depression was found to be 37.8 (95 % CI= 33. 43-42.16). Multivariate analysis revealed that unemployment (self or children) (odds ratio (OR) 2.6; 95 % confidence interval (CI) 1.41-4.72), illness of self (OR 2.2; 95 % CI 1.45-3.21), female gender (OR 1.9; 95 % CI 1.19-2.89), conflicts in family (OR 1.6; 95 % CI 1.03-2.43), and marriage of children or grandchildren (OR 1.6; 95 % CI 1.02-2.68) as independent risk factors. Depression among elderly is an important health issue of this area. Psychological intervention need to be provided for all elderly persons especially at the time of being diagnosed with any kind of illness. Strategies should be targeted to the females. The stressful life events need to be identified and remedial actions taken. This facility should be made available to them at the primary level of health care. There is a need to include screening of depression in our national health programs.

Study on depression among elderly people in an urban slum of Raichur

“…Majority (65%) of the elderly people in our study belonged to 60-70 years, similar result was noted in several other studies. 6,8,9,14 In our study, majority (54.72%) of the participants were females, similarly other studies also had more number of female participants. 8,9,14 While in the studies conducted by Jadav et al, Lilian D'souza et al and Mandolikar et al 13 the majority of the study participants were males.…”

“…6,8,9,14 In our study, majority (54.72%) of the participants were females, similarly other studies also had more number of female participants. 8,9,14 While in the studies conducted by Jadav et al, Lilian D'souza et al and Mandolikar et al 13 the majority of the study participants were males. 6,12,13 Majority (70.55%) of our study participants belonged to middle class whereas, in the studies conducted by Patil et al and Mandolikar et al majority of the participants were from low socio-economic status.…”

“…Similar results were found in the other studies. 6,8,9 Majority (95%) of our study participants were not working. Likewise in the studies conducted by Jadav et al and Thirthahalli et al, the majority of the participants were not working.…”

“…In many other studies the prevalence of depression ranged from 30 -40%. [6][7][8][9] High prevalence of depression was noted in the studies conducted by Jain et al (45.9%), Srivsatav et al (50.89%) and Lilian D'souza et al (51.9%). [10][11][12] Highest prevalence of depression among elderly people was 75.5% found in the study conducted by Mandolikar et al in the urban field practice area of a medical college at Dakshina Kannada district of Karnataka.…”

“…High prevalence of depression among females was noted in the studies conducted by Jadav et al (33.82%), Thirthahalli et al (41.6%) and Jain et al (57.8%). 6,8,10…”