Screening for depression in elderly medical inpatients from rural area of Norway: prevalence and associated factors

AIM: The present investigation screened for depression in order to assess the prevalence of depression and to study the associated factors with depression in elderly medically hospitalised patients from a rural area in Norway. METHODS: A cross-sectional study evaluated 484 (243 women) elderly medical inpatients with age range 65-101 (mean 80.7) years between September 2006 and August 2008 and used the Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale (HAD), Montgomery and Asberg Depression Rating Scale, the Mini-Mental State Examination, Lawton and Brody's scale for self-maintaining and instrumental activities of daily living. RESULTS: The prevalence of current depression, depression score > or =8 at HAD, was for the total sample 10% of whom 78% was previously not diagnosed as having depression. The odds for depression were decreased for women aged 80 years or more while for men at the same age strata it was increased threefold. Age adjusted logistic regression analyses demonstrated an increased odds for depression for those who were in need of nursing assistance before hospitalisation, had lower level of physical functioning, had clinical anxiety symptoms and had higher number of medicaments at inclusion time. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of depression in medical hospitalised elderly from rural areas was lower than in most other hospital studies. However, most patients with depression were not previously recognised as being depressed.