Comparative study of depression in elderly men and women following major fractures

Abstract

Background: Depression accounts for approximately 8.2% of people living with disability worldwide. Depression and fractures are a common occurrence especially elderly who are predisposed to fractures due to low bone mineral density. Clinical Depression is linked to high cortisol levels and low mineral density. As most studies correlating fractures in the elderly and its association with depression have been done in the western countries, we felt the need to pursue a study to compare fractures in elderly men and women and its association with depression in the Indian population. Methods: This was a prospective study done over two years with continuous sampling method. The study included 90 inpatients (51males and 39females) with fractures of long bone and hip needing prolonged rehabilitation. Patients above 65 years of age admitted with fractures of long bones and hip were examined using Beck’s depression inventory. The data was tabulated and compared between males and females. Results: We found 58.96% of females suffered from some form of depression as opposed to 39.21% of males. We found statistically significant association between depression and female suffering from major fractures.