The prevalence of depressive symptoms and predisposing factors in an elderly Chinese population

Abstract

In a survey of elderly Chinese aged 70 years and over living in Hong Kong selected by stratified random sampling, the prevalence of depression was determined using the 15-item Geriatric Depression Scale using a cut-off point of 8 (sensitivity 96.3% and specificity 87.5% for this population). Subjects with moderate to severe cognitive impairment (CAPE I/O score < or = 7) were excluded. There were 877 men and 734 women. The adjusted overall prevalence for this population was 29.2% for men and 41.1% for women. The prevalence increased with age in men and was higher in women than in men. Univariate analysis identified many factors in the following areas that were associated with depression: socioeconomic characteristics, functional ability, physical health and social support. Stepwise logistic regression identified 16 factors predictive of depression: socioeconomic characteristics, such as borderline living expenses and dissatisfaction with living arrangement; poor social support, such as absence of an informal carer when ill, few relatives to turn to, and infrequent contact with neighbours and friends; functional disability, as indicated by a Barthel Index < 15, urinary incontinence and inability to do housework; and poor physical health--poor self perceived health, poor vision, difficulty with chewing, history of mental illness, frequent hospital admissions and increased level of symptoms such as poor memory, constipation and dizziness. Some of these factors may be amenable to intervention, and such measures may be important in reducing the high prevalence of depression in elderly people.

Recognition of depressive symptoms in the elderly: What can help the patient and the doctor

“…More specifically, the higher prevalence rates have been reported in studies identifying patients with depressive symptoms [Blazer et al, 1987] and it is of interest that the two highest numbers [34% and 35%) have been reported in studies which used different versions of the GDS scale, as in our study [Cwikel and Ritchie, 1989;Woo et al, 1994]. These numbers are very close to our finding of 35.8% and give support to our data.…”

Prevalence of clinically significant depressive symptoms in an epidemiologic sample of community‐dwelling elders with milder forms of cognitive impairment in Hong Kong SAR

“…In some local epidemiologic surveys (Woo et al, 1994;Chi et al, 2005;Chou and Chi, 2005) that defined clinically significant depressive symptoms as having score on Geriatric Depression Scale >/ ¼ 8, higher prevalence of clinically significant depressive symptoms was reported. All these studies adopted one-phase design without a second phase validation of depressive symptoms by psychiatrists or psychologists.…”

Depression in Post Menopausal Women

“…Economic status was found to be major factor affecting the depression state, and factors such as unemployment, low-income level, or physically hard labour jobs are likely to cause depression. (Hauensteinm & Boyd, 1994;Woo et al, 1994;Rajala et al, 1994). Hence, when nurses implement the program related to depression, they should pay more attention to the solitary women's group and low-income group whom are experienced the depression more easily.…”