1Assistant Professor, Manipal College of Medical Sciences (Nursing Program), Pokhara, Nepal
2Associate Professor and Head of, Psychiatric Nursing Department at Maharajung Nursing Campus, Institute of Medicine, Tribhuvan University
*Corresponding address: Sandhya Shrestha Assistant Professor, Manipal College of Medical Sciences (Nursing Program), Pokhara, Nepal Email address: Shrestha_sandhu@yahoo.com
Online published on 24 February, 2017.
Depression is a common public health issue with the increasing life expectancy worldwide and depression is associated with morbidity as well as disability among the elderly. It has been observed that physical diseases, psychological illness and adjustment problems are quite common during this phase of life
Descriptive comparative study designwas conducted among 86 elderly populations of Old aged home, Pokhara and Old aged home, ramdi with the aim to compare Depressive symptoms among urban and rural old aged home during June/July 2015. Demographic Performa, Geriatric depression Scale were used for data collection. Purposive Sampling was adopted for sampling technique. The respondents were individual's age >60yrs who agreed to voluntarily Participate in the study and met the Inclusion Criteria. Data were collected by interview technique. The data was analyzed using Excel 2007 and SPSS for Window Version 19.0. Data were analyzed using Descriptive statistics and Man Whitney was used for correlation.
The Study revealed among the 86 Participants half of the Participants age from both Urban and Rural areas were 60–70. Majoritywere female, Most of them were Hindu religion from both areas, Most of them were unmarried from urban areas but most of them were Widow/widower from rural area. Most of them were Illiterate, Majority were not having children from urban area but most of them were having one children from rural area, Majority of them were not getting mental support from both area, Regarding reason behind Leaving home Most of them answered they left voluntarily(self). Among the elderly Population 19% of elderly population had severe depressive symptoms in urban aged home and 1% of elderly population was having severe depressive symptoms in rural aged home. There is difference in Mean value 57.01 and 28.67 in Urban and rural respectively and there is significant difference between depressive symptoms of Urban and Rural aged home (z=--5.266, p= 0.00).005 level of significance.
The findings show19% of elderly population had severe depressive symptoms in urban aged home and 1% of elderly population was having severe depressive symptoms in rural aged home.
Elderly, Depressive symptoms, Rural, Urban
