Abstract
Purpose: This study examines health literacy among older outpatients in two Community Healthcare Service Centers in Shanghai, China to facilitate the design of public education programs for the aged population on mood disorders (both depression and mania).Patients and Methods: A total of 173 outpatients aged 60 years or more with a chronic physical illness were randomly sampled. A health literacy questionnaire was used to assess participants' awareness of depression and mania. Participants were then asked to label two vignettes depicting depression and mania and to give their recommendations for how to seek help for those in the vignettes and how mood disorders should be managed.Results: In all, 86.1 and 36.4% of participants had heard of depression and mania, respectively, with the most common source of information being relatives and friends. Over half of the participants attributed the possible causes of mood disorders to psychological trauma, pressure or stress in daily life, taking things too hard, and personality problems. Almost two-thirds of participants correctly labeled the depression vignette, but only 26.6% correctly labeled the mania vignette. The most common methods recommended by the participants as being helpful for the individuals portrayed in the vignettes were “traveling” and help-seeking from a psychological therapist/counselor, a psychiatrist, or a close family member or friend.Conclusion: The older individuals attending community healthcare service settings in Shanghai have good depression literacy but relatively poor mania literacy. However, most participants had a positive attitude toward psychiatric treatment for mood disorders.
Highlights
The rapid increase in the world’s aging population has led to a growing body of research focused on the mental health of older people
We have previously reported that 35.2% of elderly outpatients with a medical illness attending a Community Healthcare Service Center in Shanghai had depressive symptoms, and 16.1% of the participants met the criteria for major depressive disorder [5]
Geriatric patients with bipolar disorders are likely to have more than one comorbid medical condition [7], less is known about the prevalence of bipolar disorders among elderly people with medical illness [4]
Summary
The rapid increase in the world’s aging population has led to a growing body of research focused on the mental health of older people. A major focus of this research has been mood disorders, with studies reporting prevalence rates between 10 and 38% for unipolar depression and 0.1 and 0.5% for bipolar disorders [1]. In China, the prevalence of mood disorders lasting longer than 1 month among the older community population (10.56%, aged ≥55 years) has been reported to be higher than for the younger population (7.72% for those aged 40–54 years and 3.85% for those aged 18–39 years) [2]. For elderly (aged ≥60 years) patients with different medical illnesses, the prevalence of depression increases dramatically [4]. Geriatric patients with bipolar disorders are likely to have more than one comorbid medical condition [7], less is known about the prevalence of bipolar disorders among elderly people with medical illness [4]
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