. Khadervali Nagoor; . Surendra Babu Darivemula; . N. Bayapa Reddy; . Shakeer Kahn Patan; . C. Sravana Deepthi; . Chandra Sekhar Chittooru
Volume 8, Issue 12 , December 2018, , Pages 1-7
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Mental health problems such as cognitive impairment, depression, anxiety, and sleepdisorders arising out of senility, neurosis, and living conditions are common in the geriatric ...
Read More
BACKGROUND: Mental health problems such as cognitive impairment, depression, anxiety, and sleepdisorders arising out of senility, neurosis, and living conditions are common in the geriatric population.OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to estimate the prevalence of mental illness and to describetheir sociodemographic factors in the rural geriatric population and see their association with other factors.METHODOLOGY: A community‑based cross‑sectional study was done on individuals aged morethan 60 years. The study instruments were predesigned semi‑structured questionnaire, Folstein’sMini–Mental Status Examination Scale for assessing dementia in cognitive functioning and YesavagesGeriatric Depression Scale to estimate the prevalence of depression and to assess the activitiesof the daily living by Barthel index and the anxiety were assessed based on the perception of theparticipants while conducting the interview.RESULTS: A total of 415 individuals participated, out of them 199 (47.9%) were males and216 (52.1%) were females. Prevalence of mental illness was 217 (52.2%) with one or the other typeof mental illness. The prevalence of cognitive impairment was 47.7% and depression according toGeriatric Depression Scale >5 was 27.7%. The remaining 62 (14.9%) had dementia and 30 (7.2%)had anxiety disorder as the mental illness. The socio‑demographic factors such as age more than70 years, female gender, illiterates, living in joint family, middle and lower socio‑economic class,financially totally dependent and had poor and unfair relationship with the family members werestrongly associated with the mental illness and it was statistically significant with P < 0.05.CONCLUSION: Measures should be taken to support the elders, establish community elderlysocieties, advisory offices, and services to help the elderly. The sequence of social interventionsrequired for the management of the elderly psychological problems.