Prevalence of Depressive Symptoms and Related Risk Factors for Depressive Symptoms among Elderly Persons Living in a Rural Japanese Community: a Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

To clarify the prevalence of depression in a rural community in Japan and to evaluate the social and familial risk factors for depression, with the goal of suicide prevention, a questionnaire survey was conducted on a total of 2,763 elderly persons. The determined prevalence of depressive symptoms (Zung's self-rated depression scale score of 50 points or more) was 10.4%. Logistic regression analysis showed associations between depressive symptoms and age, absence of a friendly companion, irritation with one's family, frequent loneliness, the opinion that stress has a large impact on one's life, suicide ideation, and poor subjective physical and mental health.

Proportion and Factors Associated with Depressive Symptoms among Elderly in an Urban Slum in Bangalore

“…However it was lower than Mumbai study carried out in an urban slum population (45.9 % 10 ). Studies from other developing countries report rates ranging from: 5.22 to 45.9 % [13][14][15][16][17][18][19] . Nevertheless, it indicates that there is considerable morbidity due to depression among elderly in India.…”

“…Contrasting findings were reported in other studies. [13][14][15]19 The possible reason for this is because of experiencing depressive symptoms as a reaction to being first diagnosed to be suffering from illness, but over a period of time, adjustment with the diagnosed 11,17 indicate that increasing age is associated with depressive symptoms among elderly. In our study, no such observations were observed as nearly 37 % in both under 75 and above 75 were depressed.…”

“…8 Published studies reveal that prevalence of depression among elderly in developing countries ranges from 5.22 to 45.9 %. [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19] Recent estimates indicate that, in India, depression results in loss of 961,000 disability adjusted life years (DALYs) per year among elderly. 20 As depression is potentially treatable condition, a significant reduction in DALYs is expected.…”

Gender Difference in Risk Factors for Depression in Community-dwelling Elders

“…선행연구 (Adams et al, 2004;Cole & Dendukuri, 2003;Huang, Zhang et al, 2010;Kaneko et al, 2007;Kim & Sohn, 2005) (Oh, Song, & Kim, 1998) …”

Factors Influencing Depression in Elderly People Living at Home

“…선행연구에서 노인의 우울에 관련 있는 요인으로는 사회적 지지 (Tak, Kim, & Lee, 2003), 생활만족도 (Hwang, 2007;Moon, 2004), 자아존중감 (Hwang, 2007;Moon, 2004), 수면 양상 및 수면의 질 (Yao, Yu, Cheng, & Chen, 2008), 신체적 증상 (Kaneko, Motohashi, Sasaki, & Yamaji, 2007;Shin, Kang, Jung, & Choi, 2007), 자기표현력 (Kim, 1998;Segal, 2005), 건강 및 기능적 상태(만성질환 수, ADL 제한여부, 주관 적 건강상태), 종교 (An & Tak, 2009 사회적 지지 (Tak et al, 2003), 신체적 증상 (Kaneko et al, 2007), 자기표현 (Kim, 1998;Segal, 2005), 수면양상과 수면 의 질 (Yao et al, 2008), 자아존중감과 생활만족도 (Hwang, 2007) …”