Factors Taiyuan Community Elderly Depression Status Quo And Influence

Objective The aim of this study was to explore the prevalence of depression and its related factors among elderly in the community using the Geriatric Depression Scale, to provide scientific basis for improvement of depressive symptoms in older adults and to formulate the corresponding preventive measures.Methods Three hundred twenty-nine elderly in the community were randomly selected. Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) was used to measure depression knowledge. Socio-demographic and major related influencing factors were also collected. Cronbach’s a coefficient and content validity were used to evaluate validity and reliability. x2test and Fisher probabilities in2X2table were used for factor analysis, to select variables. Logistic regression analysis was used to identify significant factors related to the total score of scale.Results (1) Internal reliability analysis resulted Cronbach’s a coefficients for total scale was0.843; Validity evaluation results showed good content validity.(2) This study showed that:71.4%of the community elderly hadn’t depressive symptoms,28.6%had depression symptoms.(3) Single factor analysis showed sex, marital, education, living conditions, smoking, reading newspapers, sports, hobbies, recreational activities, housework, marital relationship, chronic disease, family history, BMI index, activities of daily living, cognitive levels were the significant factors.(4) Logistic analysis for GDS among elderly in the community showed that sex, education, reading newspapers, sports, marital relationship, chronic disease, activities of daily living, cognitive levels were related to total scores of GDS. Female, low education, poor marital relationships, less physical exercise, reading fewer newspapers, suffering from chronic diseases, poor daily behavior and cognitive abilit were risk factors for depression; male, highly educated, marital relationship, regular physical exercise, often reading newspaper, no chronic daily capacity, high cognitive level were protective factors for depression.Conclusion Geriatric Depression Scale has acceptable validity and reliability. Geriatric Depression Scale can be used for elderly in the community to assess their depression knowledge. Effective measures of intervention on the influence factor can effectively reduce the incidence of depression in elderly patients, improve the quality of life of the elderly.