The Influences of Physical Health, Cognitive Symptom and Nutritional Status on the Depression of the Elderly Dwelling in a Big City.
- Author:
Ji Sook KANG
1
;
Yeo Sook CHUNG
Author Information
1. Division of Nursing Science, College of Health Science, Ewha Womans University, Korea. candie76@ewha.ac.kr
- Publication Type:Original Article
- Keywords:
Elderly;
Depression;
Disease;
Cognitive Symptom;
Nutritional Status
- MeSH:
Aged*;
Consent Forms;
Depression*;
Ethics Committees, Research;
Humans;
Mass Screening;
Neurobehavioral Manifestations*;
Nutritional Status*;
Surveys and Questionnaires
- From:Journal of Korean Academy of Community Health Nursing
2008;19(3):378-387
- CountryRepublic of Korea
- Language:Korean
-
Abstract:
PURPOSE: The purposes of this study were to investigate factors related to the depression of the elderly dwelling in a big city, and to explore the influence of physical health, cognitive symptom and nutritional status on the elders' depression. METHODS: After the approval of the Institutional Review Board (IRB) and obtaining the participants' consent form, a face-to-face and private interview was conducted with each participant from May, 2007 to Aug, 2007 by trained graduate level students. A total of 201 elders aged over 65 years participated in the study. The questionnaire consisted of K-GDS, PHQ-15 and Nutritional Screening Initiative (NSI). Collected data were analyzed with the SPSS 13.0 program, which was used for frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, Pearson correlation coefficients, and multiple regression. RESULTS: The major findings of this study were as follows. 1) 28.4% of the subjects belonged to the depression group, 78.1% had one or more diseases, 85.6% had experienced somatic symptoms, and 49.7% belonged to the nutritional risk group. 2) Older age, lower educational level, more pocket money, a larger number of diseases, more severe cognitive symptoms and poorer nutritional status were significantly related to a higher depression score. 3) Significant factors influencing depression were nutritional status, cognitive symptoms and the number of diseases, which explained 38.1% of the variance of elderly depression, and nutritional status was the most influencing factor. CONCLUSION: The finding of this study gives useful information for developing assessment tools and interventions for elders' depression.
