Abstract

Background: Elderly or senior citizens are the people who are of the age 60 and above. With the increase in ageing population, there is an increase in the prevalence of chronic diseases associated with old age. There is growing evidence that chronic diseases may lead to depression and vice versa.
Objective: To assess the burden of depression among the elderly in the urban field practice area of a medical college and to study the association of depression with various socio-demographic variables and co-morbidities.
Materials and Methods: It was a Community-based cross-sectional study, conducted among 229 elderly aged 60 years and above residing in the urban field practice area of a medical college of Mangalore. The study was conducted for a period of 3 months. Information regarding depression was obtained using pre-designed and pre-tested questionnaire, Geriatric depression rating scale (GDS-30) and information regarding socio-demographic variables were also obtained. The data obtained was analysed using SPSS 16.0. Result: Prevalence of depression was found to be 75.5% among the elderly population. Out of the total individuals with depression, mild depression was found to be present in 84.97%. Age and gender were the statistically significant predic - tors of depression (p<0.05). 53.3%, 49.8%, and 34.5% of the study participants were having diabetes mellitus, hyperten- sion, and musculo skeletal problems, respectively and that were found to have statistically significant association with depression (p<0.05). Conclusion: Prevalence of depression was high among the study participants, necessitating stringent efforts towards creating awareness, early identification, and management.