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Depression and its determinants in the rural elderly of westbengal -a cross sectional study

ABSTRACT 
Background Ongoing economic development and consequent change in family structure, makes the rising elderly population lose their relevance and significance in their own house and they start feeling lonely and depressed. Even though attention has been paid to the medical problems of the elderly their social problems demands considerable light in order to improve the quality of their lives and rehabilitate them to a useful productive member of the society. With this background a study was conducted on the elderly population in Singur Block of Hooghly district of West Bengal with the following objectives. To assess the psychosocial status of a population more than 60 years of age Method: It was as across sectional community based study conducted on a sample of 82 adults who had completed their 60 th birth day on the day of the survey. The study was conducted for a period of 3 months using a pretested semi structured schedule by interview method .Data was appropriately analysed using spss version 16.Result:. The prevalence of depression found in this study was 53.7%. Female sex, illiteracy ,poor PCI, absence of personal income, staying without spouse, not being consulted for decisions & feeling of ill being were significant risk factors of depression in the study population,their odds ratios being 3.5,5.5,5.6,5.87,2.65,2.94,3.03 respectively .other risk factors of depression found in this study like higher age ,separated/divorced , widowed ,nonpucca house and staying at home were not significant but had the odds ratios of1.39,2.62,2.13, 1.46, 3.04 respectively ConclusionThe status of mental health of the elderly should be improved specially in the rural areas for the wellbeing of the country.