Assessment of Geriatric Depression among Elderly Peoples Residing at Rural Area of Kheda District, Gujarat.

BackgroundDepression is a major mental health problem, which is yet to be recognized as an important public health challenge. About 322 million people affected with depression worldwide. Depression among the elderly population in India has been recognized as one of the major public health problems with a prevalence of 8 to 22%. It causes significant suffering and accounts for 5.7% of the years lived with disability, to make matters worse, it has been reported that in many cultures and societies, deteriorating mental status, say it dementia or depression, has been perceived as a part of normal ageing. Aims and ObjectivesThe aim of this study is to explore the magnitude and risk factors of depression in elderly people residing in rural area of Gujarat. Objective1. To assess the level of depression among elderly people residing at rural area. 2. To find out Significant Association between the level of depression selected demographic variables among elderly people at rural area. MethodologyO_ST_ABSDesign and SettingC_ST_ABSA cross sectional descriptive study design was used. Non probability convenient sampling technique was used to drawn samples. 100 elderly persons were screened. Geriatric depression scale (GDS) was used to assess depressive level. A self-rating questionnaire tool was used to collect data and some socio-demographics and clinical variables. Prior to data collection written setting permission obtain from authority of the village and written consent from was obtained from the participants. Data for study was collected by door to door visit in selected community. Chi square was employed to determine association of collected data. Tool consists of following Section A: Socio-demographic variables. Section B: Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS). The GDS questions are answered yes or no, instead of a five-category response set. This simplicity enables the scale to be used with ill or moderately cognitively impaired individuals. The scale is commonly used as a routine part of a comprehensive geriatric assessment. One point is assigned to each answer and the cumulative score is rated on a scoring grid. The grid sets a range of 0-9 as normal, 10-19 as mildly depressed, and 20-30 as severely depressed. ResultsResults showed that 61% was Male and 39% was Female. The majority of had 71% primary education. Regarding work majority 60% are labor, regarding financial dependency most 62% was independent, 35(35%) dependent. This study reveals that level of depression among geriatric peoples, 51 (51%) peoples had no depression, 33 (33%) having mild depression and 16 (16%) having severe depression level. ConclusionIt is concluded that nearly 50% of geriatric peoples having no depression and mild depression is more prevalent among elderly in selected rural area of Gujarat. So majority of the elderly peoples were found normal.