Anxiety and Depression in Lone Elderly Living at Their own Homes & Going to Geriatric Clubs Versus Those Living at Geriatric Homes

Anxiety and Depression in Lone Elderly Living at Their own Homes & Going to Geriatric Clubs Versus Those Living at Geriatric Homes

or

Anxiety and Depression in Lone Elderly

Tomader Taha Abdel Rahman

ABSTRACT

Anxiety and depression are common in elderly. Studies have shown a relatively low prevalence of anxiety disorders in older individuals. While, other studies have shown that among elderly, anxiety disorders occur two to seven times more often than depression problems. The rate of anxiety disorders may be even higher among elderly living at institutional settings.

The aim of this study is to evaluate the prevalence of anxiety & depression in lone elderly living at their own homes & going to geriatric clubs regularly or living at geriatric homes.

Subjects and method

164 lone elderly participants from geriatric clubs (group I) & 168 lone elderly participants from geriatric homes (group II) were included in this study. Hamilton Anxiety Scale & Hamilton Depression Rating Scale were used for detection of anxiety & depression respectively. 

Results were as follow

The co-occurrence of anxiety and depression is 34.1% & 57.1% in group I and group II respectively, while depression per se is 22.0% & 23.8% and anxiety per se is 2.4% & 1.2% in group I & group II respectively (p<0.001). Living at geriatric homes and age group 60 to 70 are independent risk factors for anxiety, depression or mixed anxiety and depression. While, male gender is an independent risk factor for depression.

Conclusion

In lone elderly, living at institutional settings such as geriatric homes is an independent risk factor for anxiety, depression or mixed anxiety and depression. Mixed anxiety and depression is more prevalent than anxiety or depression per se.

Key words

elderly; anxiety; depression

http://www.globalaging.org/health/world/2006/egyptelderly.pdf