Typology of Social Network Structures and Late-Life Depression in Low- and Middle-Income Countries.

Akin Ojagbemi,Oye Gureje

doi:10.2174/1745017901915010134

Abstract

Background:Rapid social changes and youth migration ensures a continuous drain on the social networks of the elderly in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs).Objective:We reviewed available literature on the relationship between social network structures and depression among community dwelling older persons in LMICs with a view to identifying patterns that might provide information for designing preventive psychosocial interventions.Methods:We searched the MEDLINE database through Pubmed, extracted information on the typologies of social network structures in LMICs and identified dimensions with the strongest systematic association with late-life depression, by weight, using the inverse of variance method. All analyses were conducted using the Cochrane review manager version 5.3.Results:Fourteen community-based surveys drawn from 16 LMIC contexts met criteria for syntheses. They included a total of 37,917 mostly female (58.8%) participants with an average age of 73.2 years. Social network size, contact with network, diversity of network, co-residency with own child, having more friends than family in the network, and prestigious standing of persons in the social network were protective structures against late-life depression. Conversely, low network diversity contributed 44.2% of the weight of all social network structures that are predictive of late-life depression.Conclusion:Recommendations are made for the design of new measures of social network structures in LMICs that captures the key dimensions identified. Epidemiological studies using such tools will provide more precise information for planning and prioritization of scarce resources for the prevention of late-life depression in LMICs.

Highlights

Recommendations are made for the design of new measures of social network structures in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) that captures the key dimensions identified
After retrieving and reading through the full texts of all 24 articles, a further 10 articles were excluded for reasons presented in Fig. (1): four studies [2, 27 - 29] investigated constructs other than social network structures, three studies [3, 4, 30] were based on general, rather than elderly, population samples, two studies [31, 32] were conducted among high income populations, and one study [33] was reported in Spanish
The present study found that six broad dimensions of social network structures demonstrate significant protective effects against late-life depression in LMICs

Summary

Introduction

By 2050, approximately 80% of older persons in the world will be residents of Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICs) [1 - 4]; depression is the most common mental health. This, in turn, reduces the amount of social resources available to cope with the accumulation of stressors in old age [11, 12]. In this way, persons with limited social network are likely to be at increased risk of late-life depression. Persons with limited social network are likely to be at increased risk of late-life depression In reference to another frequently cited theory [13], social network is seen to be influenced by culture, politics and economic factors. Rapid social changes and youth migration ensures a continuous drain on the social networks of the elderly in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs)

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion