Prevalence and risk factors of depressive symptomatology among the Korean elderly

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: The Korean HHBES, conducted in July 1995, was a nationwide population-based survey of the health and health-seeking behavior of Koreans. Prevalence of significant depressive symptomatology was measured by the Korean version of CES-D. METHOD: The Korean HHBES used a complex, multistage, stratified, clustered sampling scheme as a national probability sample. Using 1990 National Census data, 110 Primary Sampling Units were selected out of 185,149 sampling units in whole country after stratification by region. Of the 1,258 elderly aged 55 to 69 years who were sampled, 628 persons completed the CES-D. The response rate was 50%. RESULT: The caseness rates of cutoff score 16 (probable depression) and cutoff score 25 (definite depression), were 25.28 (male 19.10, female 29.32) and 10.81 (male 7.20, female 13.42). And mean CES-D score was 11.03. Women had significantly higher CES-D caseness rates than men (odds ration (O.R.)=1.227,95% confidence interval (C.I.) 0.793-1.901). Respondents without education also had higher rates than did respondents experienced any educational level (O.R.=1.442,95% C.I. 0.941-2.21). Respondents in disrupted marital status also had higher rates than did respondents with spouses (O.R.=1.362, 95% C.I. 0.885-2.168). Current employment seemed not to be a risk of depressive symptomatology in the elderly (O.R.=1.01,95% C.I. 0.624-1.636). Persons earning less than one million won a month had rates more than 6 times as high as any of the other income categories (O.R.=6.138, 95% C.I. 1.545-27.668). There were no clear trends in the area and age. CONCLUSION: Poverty was the only statistically significant risk factor of depression in Korean elderlys. One possible hypothesis is that poor health, physical disability, and social isolation are the major factors responsible for the observed inverse relationship between income and symptoms of depression in economically disadvantaged older populations. Much attention has to be paid to poor elderlys from the standpoint of mental health for the elderly.