PREVALENCE AND RISK FACTORS OF DEPRESSION IN THE ELDERLY NURSING HOME RESIDENTS IN SAUDI ARABIA

Objectives: to understand the prevalence and risk factors contributing to elderly Nursing Home (NH) residents’ depression in Saudi Arabia

Methods: a cross sectional study, 10 out of the 13 Saudi provinces were enrolled with 580, 132 residents completed the questionnaire, 73 of them were males, and 59 females, answering 3 part questionnaire revolving around demographic makeup, physical assessment using the activity of daily living questionnaire (ADL) , cognitive function assessment and depression severity using the geriatric depression scale (GDC).

Results: over 50% of the participants results show mild to severe depression compared to their peers. chronic comorbidities residents were more depressed (68.8%) vs (31.3%) than others with less chronic diseases, shorter length of stay is associated with higher depression prevalence (75%) vs (25%), residents with previous history of depression showed recurrent episodes (64.6%) vs (35.4). No significant statistic presented between depression and cognitive function, financial status, sex, visitations, or sleep disturbances.

Conclusion: the high prevalence of depression among elderly is an alarming finding that need to be managed and more taking care of by the health care system in Saudi, specially that we lack a lot of studies and data on this subject.

Keywords: Elderly, Depression, Nursing home, Activity of daily living, Geriatric depression score, cognitive function.