Depression prevelance among elderly people aged 65 years and above in İzmir city center

Introduction: As elderly population increases, diseases that are specific to this age group are becoming more important. Especially depression among psychiatric disorders come forward in elderly. In this study, it was aimed to determine the depression prevalence among elderly aged 65 years and above, excluding dementia. Materials and method: This cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out by face to face interviews and included 771 elderly people who are determined across the age strata. Patients who couldn't be able to cooperate due to cognition changes, hearing and speaking loss and who didn't want to involve were excluded from the study. Evaluation has been achieved with Geriatric Depression Scale Short Form, Daily Life Activities Scale, Mini Mental State; and Mini Mental Test for non educated people. Statistical analysis has been defined with numbers and percentage. Chi square and T tests were used and p<0.05 was considered significant. Results: In this study that we searched for the depression prevalence among 771 elderly people who aged 65 years and above. As dementia and depression has similar symptoms, 134 patients who has dementia were excluded from the study. Evaluations through 637 patients revealed depression prevalence as %15,23. For patients whose ages between 65-74 the prevalence was %10,95; whereas it is %20,34 for patients 75 years and above. It was shown that increased age, being single, living alone, being female, low education level, low income, presence of chronic diseases, sleeping disorders and emotional disorders were increasing depression risk in the population we studied. Conclusion: According to this study, depression risk increases as the age increases. As primary care physicians, during the visits of elderly to family health centers, we should be more careful about depression diagnosis.