Impact of Economic Status on Mental Health in Older Age: A Scoping Review

The World Health Organization has been raising awareness of the importance of mental health at older age and encouraging policy makers to implement preventive means for better aging. The importance of the economic status of the person in maintaining good mental health at older age is yet to be established. We searched the PubMed and Google Scholar databases for peer reviewed published papers relevant to our scoping review. We limited our search only to recent publications including papers published within the last 5 years. The Rayyan website was used to eliminate duplicates and filter the database based on the titles and abstracts of the papers. We only included studies that identified their participants as older adults. Our search of the international database identified 21 different studies that were included in our scoping review. These studies are mostly located within the Asian continent hence, representing a bias to the representativity of this scoping review on the global level. Economic status is an important determinant of good mental health at older age, but it is not the most crucial factor. Other social determinants like cultural, social, and religious factors play a significant role in mental health status in older adults.