An analysis of relevant factors for depressive symptoms in residents aged 60 and over in Shimen Erlu Community of Shanghai / 中华全科医师杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective It aims to investigate prevalence of depressive symptoms among the elderly in community and to understand their related social factors. Methods Four neighborhood committees were randomly selected with cluster sampling as survey sites. Enrolled residents at age of 60 to 89 years were evaluated with a general background inventory and a geriatric depression scale(GDS). All the data were input to a microcomputer and were analyzed for its relevant factors with SPSS13. 0 software by multivariate logistic regression model. Results Totally, 1731 elderly people in the community were interviewed and rated with the inventory and scale mentioned above, and depressive symptoms were found in 297 of them, with prevalence of 17. 2 percent. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that there were seven factors associated to their depressive symptoms in the elderly, including family expenditure, housing condition, medical condition, familial support, hobbies in spare-time, ability to take care of oneself and participation to social activities. Conclusions A few social factors, such as living alone, insufficient income for family expenditure, disability of self care-taking, lack of hobby in spare-time, less participation to social activities, lack of familial support and severe chronic diseases by serf-evaluation, are all associated with depressive symptoms in the elderly.