Depression status of the elderly and its relationship with quality of life in community of Fuzhou city / 中华老年医学杂志

ABSTRACT

ObjectiveTo investigate the status of depression and its relationship with quality of life in Fuzhou city community Methods With stratified random sampling method,3285 elderly people (age≥ 60 years) in 12 communities of Fuzhou city were investigated by SF-36 health survey questionnaire and Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS)Results The number of the elderly with depression was 1981 ( 60.3％).The incidence of depression in the female elderly was statistically higher than male(x2 =7.561,P＜0.01).The incidence of depression increased with age(P＜0.01),and declined with higher education ( P ＜ 0.01 ) and income ( P ＜ 0.05).The higher incidence of depression appeared in the elderly with no spouse,paying for medical expenses themselves,living alone(all P＜0.01).The scores of physiological functions (PF),physiological role (RP),body pain (BP),general health (GH),vigor (VT),social function (SF),emotional role (RE),mental health (MH) and quality of life in the elderly without depression (78.0± 19.2,62.7 ± 39.7,94.1 ± 12.3,57.9± 12.0,74.3 ± 14.9,83.0 ± 20.1,64.3 ± 39.1,73.8 ± 14.8,and 73.5 ± 13.6,respectively) were higher than in the elderly with depression (65.9±22.6,45.3±37.8,89.5±15.2,50.8±11.4,59.8 ± 15.9,70.5± 20.9,44.7 ± 37.8,60.6 ± 15.6 and 60.9 ± 14.0,respectively) (P＜0.01 ).All scores had significant differences among different levels of depression (P＜ 0.01 )and the dimension scores decreasedwithserious depression.Depression was negatively correlated with various dimensions of quality of life and total score(P＜0.01).ConclusionsThe incidence of depression of the elderly in Fuzhou city is high.There are negative correlations of depression with quality of life scores and total score of various dimensions.The community nursing service should emphasize on the elderly who are female,advanced age,no spouse,poor-education,low-income,no medical insurance and live alone,then take appropriate measures to reduce depression and improve quality of life of the elderly.