A Study of Depression Among Aged in  Urban and Rural Areas of Lucknow City

Dr. Mrinal Ranjan; Dr. Pratibha Gupta; Dr.Beena Sachan; Dr.Pankaj b; Dr.J.P. Srivastava; Dr.Sarita C

Volume : II, Issue : X, October - 2013

A Study of Depression Among Aged in Urban and Rural Areas of Lucknow City

Dr. Mrinal Ranjan, Dr. Pratibha Gupta, Dr. Beena Sachan, Dr. Pankaj B, Dr. J. P. Srivastava, Dr. Sarita C

Abstract :

Background This cross–sectional study interviews 400 elderly belonging to different socioeconomic and varying demographic groups of urban and rural areas of Lucknow as per predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria with their informed consent. Introduction The elderly in India face a multitude of psychological, social, and physical health problems. As age advances there is increased morbidity and functional loss, also presence of a variety of depressive factors and occurrence of varying life events, greatly impact on one�s psychological status, making them more prone to depression. As health care facilities improve in countries, the proportion of the elderly in the population and the life expectancy after birth increase accordingly. This is the trend which has been seen in both developed and developing countries Aim and Objectives To study the problem of depression amongst elderly.To suggest measures to reduce depression amongst elderly. Materials And Methods A total of 400 elderly people were interviewed, comprising of 200 people each from the elderly living in the rural areas and 200 elderly living in the urban areas of Lucknow city. . A predesigned and pretested interview schedule was used to elicit information on sociodemographic characteristics and required information. Necessary modifications were made in the schedule to overcome the difficulties encountered during pretesting. All the analysis was carried out by using SPSS 16.0 version and the results were recorded as frequencies, means � standard deviations and p–values. Tables and figures were used for comprehensive viewing of the results. Chi–square test was used for categorical variables. A p–value of