Prevalence of Depression among Elderly in the Urban Field Practice Area of Rajarajeswari Medical College and Hospital: A Cross Sectional Study Shyam A.C.1, Kumar P. Naveen2,*, Bhanushree3 1Associate Professor, Department of Community Medicine, Rajarajeswari Medical College and Hospital, Bengaluru 2Assistant Professor, Department of Community Medicine, Rajarajeswari Medical College and Hospital, Bengaluru 3Junior Resident, Department of Community Medicine, Rajarajeswari Medical College and Hospital, Bengaluru *Corresponding Author: Dr Naveen Kumar P. Department of Community Medicine, Rajarajeswari Medical College and Hospital, #202, Kambipura, Mysore Road, Bengaluru, Karnataka-560074
Online published on 23 December, 2019. Abstract One of the important determinants of Mental health is age, old age not challenges physically but also with Challenges affecting the mental and social wellbeing. The current prevalence of depression with the light of evidences from the community based studies is 36%, of which 86.1% of the elderly population had medical co morbidities. This cross-sectional study was conducted in Channasandra, urban field practice area of Rajarajeswari medical college and hospital. The sample size was estimated to be 92.16 which was rounded off to 100. The study was carried out using GDS-15, geriatric depression scale. From the above study, the prevalence of the depression among the elderly was found to be 38 (38%). of which 24 (63.1%) were suffering from moderate depression and 14 (36.8%) were suffering from severe depression. In the current study, it was found that depression was seen more among 30(78.9%) of the depressive subjects with medical co-morbidities, when compared with 42(67.7%) of the non-depressive subjects having co-morbidities. From the above study, prevalence of depression among the elderly was found to be 38% which influenced by illiteracy, medium standard of living. Top Keywords Mental health, Social wellbeing, Depression, Elderly. Top |