Epidemiologic Study of Cognitive Impairment and Depressive Symptoms of the Elderly in a Korean Rural Community

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: Elderly Dementia and depression are major neuropsychiatric disorders. Epidemiologic study considered essential part to evaluate and treatment guideline for community mental health. METHOD: The cross-sectional study evaluates the dementia and depression of community- living elderly, over 65 older in a Korean rural community. Mini-Mental State Examination- Korean (MMSE-K) and Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) was conducted. RESULTS: The prevalence of dementia is 14.0% below the 17 of MMSE-K score. Cognitive function decline is increasing with age. The prevalence of dementia in female elderly is higher than that in male with statistical significance (p<.001). The prevalence of depression is 10% among elderly population. Female elderly have higher frequency than male with statistical significance. CONCLUSION: Elderly dementia and depression is very important neuropsychiatric disorders. MMSE-K and GDS-K is useful instruments for evaluation of elderly dementia and depression. Age and sex are important factors for dementia and depression. More developed instruments for accurate detection and differentiation of dementia and depression are need for mental health program to manage effectively them.