[Feelings of well-being and depression in relation to social activity in normal elderly people]

In order to clarify the influence of social activities on the feeling of well-being or depression in the elderly, we studied these relationships in 2 groups with different activities. Group I consisted of 26 subjects (mean age, 77.2 years) living in a retirement house and exposed to relatively few social stimuli. Group II consisted of 47 subjects (mean age, 75.6 years) who were living in their own homes and were confirmed to be socially active. The Morale Scale and the Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS) were used to evaluate feelings of well-being or depression. The morale scale in group I was significantly lower than in group II. In particular, there was a significant difference in the factor related to aging. The SDS score of group I was significantly higher than that of group II. The depressive state incidence was significantly higher in group I than in group II in all subjects. There was a highly significant correlation between the morale scale score and the SDS score. These results indicate that group I is less satisfied and more depressed than group II. We conclude that social environmental factors are extremely important for the quality of life of elderly people.