Usama Bin Zubair, Sawera Mansoor.
Prevalence of depression and associated socio demographic factors in elderly rural population.
J Pak Psych Soc Jan ;12(3):19-22.

Objective: To determine the prevalence of depression in elderly rural population and analyze socio demographic factors associated with depressive symptoms. Design: Cross sectional study. Place of study: Bewal village Pakistan in October 2014. Subjects and Method: The sample population comprised of 206 elderly people (60 years and above) living in village Bewal Pakistan. Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) was used to record the presence and severity of depressive symptoms. The following socio-demographic variables were taken on a separate sheet. Results: Out of 206 subjects 29.1% had no depressive symptoms, 27.2% had mild, 18% had moderate and 25.7% had severe depressive symptoms. With logistic regression, we found significant correlation between depressive symptoms and female gender, use of naswar and lack of social support. Conclusion: Prevalence of depressive symptoms is very high in our study which highlights the importance of developing good mental health care facilities for elderly rural population. Special attention should be paid on females, naswar users, and people who are having inadequate social support.

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