Prevalence And Risk Indicators Of Depression In Elderly Inpatients

Late-life depression(LLD)is a major health hazard which may affect upto 15-20% of the geriatric population in the world.The study is being undertaken to estimate the prevalence of depression in the elderly hospitalized population and to identify the predisposing factor associated with depression.We used the method of cluster sampling to select the elderly aged 60 years old or above from The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University(including the management area of Qinggang)as the research object,and used the GDS-30 and self-made questionnaire to investigate the depression status and related factors of the research object.Out of 96 elderly patients in the geriatric inpatient department,25 patients(26.04%)were diagnosed to have depression,The commonest symptoms associated with these depressed patients were anxiety(88%),sleep disturbances(76%),irritability(72%)and loss of appetite(52%),and inability to enjoy life(64%).In this study,The majority of elderly patients diagnosed with Depression with Geriatric Depression Scale(GDS-30)were mild depressed.The predisposing factors that were significantly associated with depression were female gender(p=0.0364),chronic obstructive pulmonary disease(COPD)(p=0.0365),multiple drug use(p=0.0315),negative events(p=0.0026)and functional impairment(p=0.0335).