Expression of Depressed Mood: A Comparative Study among Japanese and Canadian Aged People

OBJECTIVE: To investigate differences of expression regarding depressed mood between Japanese and Canadian aged people. METHOD: The Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS) was applied to people aged 65 and over in Ohira, Japan, and Steveston, British Columbia, Canada. RESULTS: The number of subjects who filled out the SDS completely was 2180 for the Japanese sample and 183 for the Canadian sample. The mean SDS indexes of the Japanese and the Canadian samples were 44.03 and 44.34, respectively. The Canadian sample showed a higher average score in 11 items out of 20, whereas the Japanese sample showed a higher score on only 4 items. The factor analysis of those samples showed only small differences. CONCLUSIONS: The Canadian sample showed a higher average score in more items compared with the Japanese sample. This indicates that Canadian aged people express their depressed moods more clearly and spontaneously than Japanese aged people.