29. THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN HYPERTENSION AND DEPRESSION IN AGED NURSING HOME RESIDENTS IN INDONESIA

Abstract

Background: Hypertension is one of the most common diseases to affect the elderly. With Indonesia currently facing a demographic shift to an ageing population, the prevalence of high blood pressure within the elderly is steadily increasing. Hypertension has been known to disrupt the psychosocial wellbeing of the elderly and cause depression. Besides the stress of dealing with hypertension, anti-hypertensive drugs reportedly may also cause depression as a side effect. Depression in turn can also cause hypertension through the activation of the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal axis. Objective: The purpose of this study is to determine the association between hypertension and depression in the elderly. Method: This cross-sectional study sampled 138 elderly residents aged 60 years and above from the Tresna Budi Mulia nursing home in Jakarta. The blood pressure of the respondents were measured using a sphygmomanometer and a stethoscope, while depression was evaluated using the Geriatric Depression Scale. The collected data were then analyzed using SPSS version 22. Result: Out of the 138 respondents, a total of 21 elderly men and women experienced depression with hypertension. The number of respondents who experienced depression without hypertension was 30 (22%), while the number of respondents who experienced hypertension without depression was also 30 (22%). A chi-squared test was performed to observe the association between the two variables, and the p value obtained was 0.468 (p ≥ 0.05). Conclusion: There was no association between hypertension and the occurrence of depression in the elderly residents of the Tresna Budi Mulia nursing home in Jakarta.