Effect of Community-Based ‘Goal-Achieving Program’ in Patient with Late-Life Depression : Preliminary Study

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to investigate the effect of community-based Goal-Achieving program in geriatric depressive symptoms preliminarily. METHODS: We obtained data from elderly Korean subjects with major depressive disorder (n=51) aged 60 years or older at baseline, taking case management from community mental health center. Subjects were randomly assigned to intervention group (n=24) and control group (n=27). We investigated depressive symptoms through Short Form Geriatric Depression Scale-Korean version (SGDS-K) at baseline and every month for 3 months to all subjects. We tested interaction between group and time in SGDS-K score to evaluate the effect of program. And post hoc test examined between group differences of SGDS-K at each time points. RESULTS: In quadratic linear mixed effects model analysis, interaction between group and time was statistically significant (Total SGDS-K score coefficient=0.29, p<0.001 ; SGDS-K dysphoria subscale 0.18, p<0.001 ; SGDS-K hopelessness subscale 0.05, p=0.089 ; SGDS-K cognitive impairment subscale 0.06, p=0.003). And significant between group difference was shown in post hoc test at time points of third month (SGDS-K score of control group SGDS-K score of intervention group=10.74±3.482 7.25±4.475, p=0.0184). CONCLUSION: These results may suggest that ‘Community-based the Goal-Achieving program’ has efficacy in reducing geriatric depressive symptoms.