Depression and psychosocial factors related to depression in the elderly in Thungyang subdistrict, Laplae district, Uttaradit province

Abstract

The main important mental health problems in the elderly are depression and dementia. Depression in the elderly is a type of mental illness that responds to disappointment, loss, or longing for missing events. Consequently, these make the elderly feel unhappy, glum, and depressed. If symptoms are severe, it should impact on danger of self-harm. It has been reported that 90% of suicides in the elderly were related to depression. Depression in the elderly can occur for several reasons including physical, mental, and social. Promoting good social support can reduce depression and mental health problems and also promote good health behaviors. The purpose of this research was to study the prevalence of depression and the relationship between psychosocial factors with depression including stressful life events, social support, and participation in the community of the elderly in Thung
Yang subdistrict in, Laplae district, Uttaradit province. The cross-sectional analytical study design was performed. The sample consisted of 312 elderly people in Thung Yang Subdistrict using a simple random sampling method. Research tools included the Thai Geriatric Depression Scale: TGDS, a questionnaire on stressful life events over the past 1 year, a social support assessment, and a questionnaire on participation in society of the elderly Data were analyzed using frequency statistics, percentage, mean, and standard deviation. The relationship between psychosocial factors and depression was analyzed using the chi-square test and the correlation coefficient was analyzed with Pearson correlation. Statistical significance was set at a level less than 0.05.

The results found that the prevalence of depression among the elderly in Thung Yang subdistrict was 7.1%, and the mean depression score was 5.74 points. Psychosocial data found that the severity of stressful events in life during the past 1 year was an average of 9.05 points, most were at the moderate level (60.3%), the average social support score was 57.9 points, most were at the moderate level (75.3%), and the average social participation score was 35.51 points, mostly at the moderate level (66.4%).
Personal factors that were statistically significantly related to depression including age were positively correlation at a deficient level (r=0.143, p=0.011). Average current monthly income had a low negative correlation (r=-0.229, p<0.001), but the number of family members had a low positive correlation (r=0.217, p<0.001). For psychosocial factors that related to depression statistically significant stressful life events had a low positive relationship (r=0.381, p<0.001), but social support and participation in society were not related to depression (p>0.05).

In conclusion, guidelines for promoting mental health for the elderly should be developed. The personnel and relevant officials should support the organization of health activities, prevention and management of stress to prevent depression, and encourage the elderly to improve their physical and psychosocial health.