A research on effects of cooking therapy as an ergotherapy on depression and anxiety levels of older women living in home care house

In this research, it was aimed to examine effectiveness of cooking therapy on decreasing of depression and anxiety of old women living in home care houses. In the research, 22 total of old women living home care house including 11 experiment and 11 control group were subjected to therapeutic cooking action for 5 week and 10 day duration. Geriatric Drepression Scale and Beck Anxiety Scale were applied to participants as test-retest, and effects of therapy on depression and anxiety levels were examined in the research. According to results of the study, applied therapy program gave affective results to reduce both depression and anxiety levels. Although there were not statistically significant differences between depression and anxiety levels of experiment and control groups (p>0,05), there were statistically significant differences found after therapy (p<0,05). Both depression and anxiety levels of experiment group showed statistically significant decreases before and after therapy (p<0,05). In the control group, although there was not a statistically significant difference in levels of depression before and after therapy (p>0,05), anxiety levels significantly increased (p<0,05). For this reason, it may be argued that applied program also prevents increasing of anxiety levels. Key Words : Home care house; Depression; Anxiety; Geriatrics.