A Comparative Study of Prevalence of Depression and Associated Risk Factors among the Elderly Population

Introduction: Depression (major depressive disorder) is a common and serious medical illness that negatively affects how you feel, the way you think and how you act. Depression is now categorised among the most common psychiatric disorders among the elderly people. It is projected that by 2050, elderly will constitute 20-30% of India's population. the median prevalence rate of depressive disorders in the world for the elderly population was determined to be 10.3%, while among the elderly Indian population, it was determined to be 21.9%. Aim: This study aimed to estimate the prevalence of depression in the elderly population (>60 years old) Material and Method: It is a cross sectional study, with a total sample size of 1060 elderly persons. For assessment of depression a 15-item geriatric depression scale (GDS) which consists of 15 self-report items was used in the study Results: It was observed that majority of the subjects included in study had Mild depression (38.6%) and least (4.05%) of the elderly were severely depressed. Male and Female population in this study were almost equally distributed with male population (40.5%) being affected more by depression then the female population (39.6% ) and Majority of subjects in the study were married (59.6%), and lived in a joint set up of family (81.6%). Majority of them were literate (67.9%) and financially not independent. Only the association between type of family, education and financial dependency with depression was found to be statically significant (p = 0.00) and rest variables were found to be statistically nonsignificant Conclusion: With increasing longevity and proportion of the elderly population in India, Depression in elderly is a significant problem. As the trend now a days is towards urbanization and nucleation of the families, this problem may be categorised as "public health problem" in the near future.