Prevalence of Depression Among the Geriatric Population and Its Associated Factors: A Cross-Sectional Study in a...

The world is aging, and the number of the aged is rising in nearly all parts of the world. There is also a demographic transition in India. Life expectancy has significantly increased in the last 70 years. Mental health, especially depression, is one of the most prevalent illnesses in the elderly. Geriatric depression, as it is also known in the older population, is linked to not only quality of life but also risk of disability, suicide, and death. This study aims to determine the prevalence of depression among the elderly population and to study the factors associated with it.

It's a cross-sectional study conducted from April 2025 to June 2025 in two centers for people in the age group above 60 years in a village with 170 participants. The study was carried out as a community-based cross-sectional study on older adults in a Family Adoption Program (FAP) village, Shivamogga, Karnataka, India. The semi-structured questionnaire was employed in the collection of data and comprised socio-demographic variables and the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) screening scale to measure depression. IBM SPSS Statistics software, version 25.0 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY), was used to perform statistical analysis. Descriptive statistics and chi-square tests were performed, and a p-value of <0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Out of 170 participants, 60% of the participants belong to the 60-69 age group; the mean age was 66.8 years. Among them, 80% were females and 20% were males, and 87% (148) were married. The prevalence of depression was found to be 14.7%. There is a statistical association between age (<0.015) and gender (<0.017), and also the presence of diabetes (<0.004) and sleep pattern (<0.00006), and depression symptoms among elders.

Proper setting of geriatric mental health care programs to prevent and diagnose depression among the elderly rural population and cure and provide rehabilitation facilities to the elderly.