Depressive disorders in elderly: An estimation of this public health problem

The pint prevalence of depressive disorders in the elderly population of the world varies between 10% and 20% depending on cultural situations. Objective of the study was to determine the median prevalence rates of depressive disorders in elderly population of India and various other countries in the world. retrospective study based on meta-analysis of various study reports of community based mental health surveys on geriatric depressive disorders conducted between 1955 and 2005in continents of Asia, Europe. Australia, North America and South America conducted . 74 original research studies that surveyed a total of 4,87,275 elderly individuals in the age group of 60 years and above, residing in various parts of the world were included for the final analysis. These studies were conducted on homogenous community of elderly population in the world, who were selected by simple random sampling technique. Median prevalence rate and its corresponding inter-quartile range, Chisquare test and Chi-square for Linear Trend were applied. P value < 0.05 was considered as statistically significant. The Median Prevalence rate of depressive disorders in the world for the elderly population was determined to be 10.3% [Interquartile Range (IQR) = (4.7% - 16.0%)]. The Median Prevalence Rate of depression among elderly Indian population was determined to be 21.9% [IQR = (11.6% -31.1%)]. Though there was a significant decrease trend in world prevalence of geriatric depression, but it was significantly higher among the Indians in recent years than the rest of the world.