Abstract

Geriatric depression is a major health hazard which may affect upto 15-20% of the geriatric population in the world. This study is being undertaken to estimate the prevalence of depression in the elderly population and to identify the predisposing factors associated with depression. A cross sectional study on patients above 65 years of age attending an outpatient clinic was done. They were screened using the Geriatric Depression Scale (30-point questionnaire).  The association between depression and possible predisposing factors was tested using chi-square test. Out of 250 outpatients at the Geriatrics Outpatient Department, 133 patients were diagnosed to have depression, giving a prevalence of 53.2%. Out of these patients, 102 patients (76.69%) were diagnosed to have mild depression and 31 patients (23.31%) were diagnosed to have severe depression. The commonest symptoms associated with depression were anxiety (57.9% patients), sleep disturbances (55.6% patients), irritability (42.9% patients) and somatic symptoms (37.6% patients). The predisposing factors that were significantly associated with depression were female gender, poor level of education, unemployed or retired life, multiple comorbid illnesses, polypharmacy, adverse life events, fincancial crisis in the family and functional impairment.The prevalence of depression was 53.2% in Geriatric patients, and majority of cases were mild depression. Gender, socioeconomic variables, lifestyle and comorbid medical conditions are important predisposing factors to the development of depression in the geriatric population.