Abstract:
Objective: To determine the proportion of geriatric depression and factors associated with its occurrence among a sample of the elderly population in Sohag Governorate. Methods: it is a cross-sectional, population-based study conducted from May 2016 to March 2017 on1027 elderly individuals (aged ≥ 60 years) living in Sohag governorate. A Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-15) was used to detect depression among elderly populations.
Results: it shows that 62.7% of the participating elderly populations in Sohag Governorate suffered from depression. Regarding depression levels, 450 (43.8%) of participants had mild depression with GDS-15 scores between 5 and 8, participants with moderate depression represented 18.9 % with GDS-15 scores between 9 and 11. None of the participants had severe depression. On logistic regression analysis, increasing in age, female gender, living in rural areas were strong predictors of geriatric depression in Sohag Governorate.
Conclusion: Geriatric depression is highly prevalent in Sohag Governorate (62.7%) and older age, female gender, and rural residence are strong predictors of its occurrence.