Occurrence of mood disorders among educationally active older adults in Bialystok, Poland: a cross-sectional study

Mood disorders in older people are an increasingly serious health and social problem, and their prevalence increases with age. The most common mood disorders are bipolar disorder, which is the occurrence of mania and hypomania, and depressive disorders. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of mood disorders in a group of educationally active elderly people living in Bialystok, Poland.

The study included a total of 162 people-residents of Bialystok-aged 60 or older; 135 women (83.33%) and 27 men (16.67%). The study used five standardized psychometric scales: The Mood Disorder Questionnaire (MDQ), Hypomania Check List (HCL-32), Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) and The Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale (Zung SDS).

Nearly 90.00% of the respondents obtained GDS scores indicating the presence of mild depressive symptoms; however, on the Zung SDS, which also evaluates depression symptom levels, the result obtained in almost the same number of respondents showed an absence of these symptoms. A similar percentage of respondents also obtained values on the MDQ that allow to determine a lack of bipolar disorder characteristics in the studied population. Over half of the respondents (58.02%) did not show symptoms of hypomania using the HCL-32. There was a significant correlation between the results of the GDS and Zung SDS, the HCL-32 and MDQ, as well as the HCL-32 and Zung SDS in the total studied group.

Mood disorders, particularly depression, constitute a significant social and health problem in the group of educationally active older adults living in Bialystok. In light of the obtained research results, it is recommended to conduct and improve already realized health education programs for the elderly on the subject of mood disorder prevention and their impact on quality of life. There is a need for further research on mood disorders in the elderly to determine their prevalence on a national scale.