Prevalence and factors influencing depression among elderly living in the urban poor locality of Bengaluru city

Abstract

Background: The Indian elderly population is currently the second largest in the world. Mental disorders have got high prevalence and low priority among elderly in most of the countries around the world, of which depression being the most common treatable condition. In India, there is scarcity of research on prevalence and factors influencing depression among elderly from urban poor locality by adopting a geriatric depression scale-15 (GDS-15) scale. Objectives: (1) To find out the prevalence of geriatric depression, (2) to find out the factors associated with depression. Methodology: A cross-sectional study was conducted at urban poor locality of Bengaluru on 100 elderly people by applying GDS-15 Kannada version to assess the prevalence of depression and information regarding the sociodemographic characteristics, financial status, and comorbid conditions were collected. Results: The prevalence of depression assessed by using GDS-15 Kannada version was found to be 36%. Depression was more among 12 (70.6%) from medium standard of living index (SLI) group compared to 24 (28.9%) from high SLI group, which was shown to be statistically significant. Among the elderly with depression, 31 (86.1%) had some medical comorbidities when compared with 33 (51.6%) elderly without depression, which was found to be statistically significant. Conclusions: The current research has shown prevalence of depression according to GDS-15 (Kannada version) as 36% and influenced by SLI, hold on assets, insomnia and comorbidities, which needs to be confirmed by undertaking further studies.