ABSTRACT
Background: Mental health is important at every stage of life, from childhood and adolescence through adulthood. Worldwide interest in geriatric depression has increased but studies to assess the depression among the elderly population in urban slums has hardly been done. So this study would shed light on the risk factors of depression among geriatrics in urban slums. Aim & Objective: To study the epidemiological determinants such as age, marital status, education, financial dependency, economic status and chronic illness in relation to of depression among the geriatric population (60–80 years). Settings and Design: Community-based, cross-sectional study for 24 months with a samplesize of 209. Methods & Material: Urban slum area represented by one health post was selectedas the study area which caters to around 96,630 slum residents. Pre-tested semi-structuredinterviews were conducted after selecting households by systematic random sampling. Statistical analysis: Data was analyzed using SPSS version 21. A chi-square test was applied. Result: The present study shows overall prevalence of depression among the elderly above 60 years of age to be 48.6%. Depression is found to been significantly associated with an increase in age, living alone (72.7%), lower class economic status (100%), financial dependency (54%), history of chronic family illness (54.7%) and with no formal education (62.1%) among elderly dwelling in slums. Conclusions: There is a high prevalence of depression in the community and hence, a need to sensitize Primary level Health Care Services to institute screening tests considering the association of these determinants with depression and link them to specialized services for further management.
ABSTRACT
Background: Community participation is one of the core principles of Primary Health Care. VHNSC is example of community participation and is formed to take collective actions on health issues and its social determinants of health (SDH). It is envisaged as being central to local level community action to support decentralized health planning. Work on actual participation of VHSNC on SDH is almost negligible. Therefore, the present research study was conducted to find out the participation of VHNSC on SDH. Aim: To assess the involvement of VHNSC on SDH. Methods and Material: Knowledge on SDH and health actions of VHNSCs were studied using a questionnaire which was pretested and suitably modified. The study was conducted in all the 83 VHNSCs under 4 PHCs namely Waiphad, Anji, Kharangana Gode and Talegaon were choosen as per feasibility. Results: Members of all VHNSCs had knowledge about access to safe drinking water, sanitation and nutrition as SDH. Members from 6 (7.2%) VHNSCs could not relate literacy with health. Most had to be probed regarding knowledge about addiction to tobacco and alcohol; social deprivation and availability of emergency transport. Conclusions: VHNSC are moving in the right direction however they require continuous support, hand holding and monitoring from government and other NGOs.