Pattern of morbidity and depression among the urban geriatric population: A community-based survey in Bhubaneswar, Orissa, India

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Current global and national demographic structures are shifting toward a higher proportion of the elderly population. More than 50% of the population aged above 70 years of age suffers from one or more chronic conditions. Depression is the most frequent psychiatric disorder in the elderly population. OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to assess the pattern of morbidity and depression among the elderly people as well as to identify the determinants of depression. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A community-based cross-sectional study was undertaken from September 2014 to June 2015 in the urban field practice area of Hi-Tech Medical College, Bhubaneswar. The simple random sampling was performed to select 450 geriatric people. House-to-house visit was done to interview the participants with a predesigned pretested schedule. The schedule contained baseline characteristics, morbidity questions, Katz activity of daily living (ADL) scale, and geriatric depression scale. Collected data were entered into MS Excel spreadsheet and analyzed with the help of SPSS 22.0 version. RESULTS: Major morbid condition was concerned with Cardio Vascular System (31.7%), followed by cataract and musculoskeletal system. Among the study population, 45.8% had no depression, 15.1% had mild depression, 30.7% had moderate depression, and 8.4% had severe depression. Age, marital status, education, financial dependency, Katz ADL, and chronic diseases were significantly associated with geriatric depression. CONCLUSION: Recreational activities, awareness generation regarding regular exercise, strengthening of social security systems, arrangement of old age homes, legal measures to take care of the elderly, promotion of self-help group, and proper counseling are the measures to be taken to combat geriatric depression at this hour.