Relationships between Depression, Lifestyle and Quality of Life in the Community Dwelling Elderly: A Comparison between Gender and Age Groups

This study aimed to comprehensively investigate the comprehensive relationships between depression and the characteristics of lifestyle and quality of life (QOL) of healthy, community dwelling elderly, and compare them according to gender and age groups. 1302 subjects (657 males and 645 females) were used for analysis. The investigators in this study were researchers working at universities in each prefecture. Data collection was conducted in a general delivery survey and interview setting or an education class setting. The geriatric depression scale (GDS) consisting of 15 items with a dichotomous scale was used to assess depression symptoms in the elderly. In addition, 16 items selected from the four factors of economic situation, physical health, social activity, and personal status were used to assess lifestyle. Furthermore, this study investigated life satisfaction, morale, and physical function with the LSI scale, PGC morale scale and the ADL scale of the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture, respectively. According to our results, depression characteristics of the elderly differ between gender and age groups. Depression increases in the old-old elderly rather than in the young-old elderly and is highest in old-old females. The factors significantly related to depression in community dwelling elderly were the number of friends and morale. In particular, an increase in the number of friends was related to a decrease in depression. Depression in the old-old elderly was more significantly related to many lifestyle items compared with the young-old elderly, and especially in the old-old elderly, the extent of social activities related to a decrease in depression.