The Prevalance of Depression and Anxiety among Elderly People in Dai Rural Areas of Jinggu County Yunnan Province and Its Relationship with Socio-economic Status / 昆明医科大学学报

ABSTRACT

Objective The aim of this study is to analyze the prevalence of depression and anxiety symptoms and its relationship with the socio-economic position(SEP)among the elderly people in Dai rural areas of Jinggu County,Yunnan province.Methods A multi-stage stratified random sampling method was used to conduct a questionnaire survey among 1409 people aged 60 and over in Dai rural areas of Jinggu County,Yunnan Province.The individual SEP index was constructed using the principal component analysis.Results The prevalence of anxiety symptoms,depression symptoms,and mixed anxiety-depressive disorder symptoms was 4.8%,52.0%,and 4.2% among them,2.6%,49.4%,and 2.3% among the males,and 6.8%,54.5%,and 6.0% among the females respectively.Females had the higher prevalence of anxiety symptoms and mixed anxiety-depressive disorder symptoms than males(P<0.05).Elderly people with the higher level of education,annual per capita household income and SEP had the lower prevalence of anxiety symptoms and mixed anxiety-depressive disorder symptoms than their counterparts(both P<0.05).The prevalence of depression symptoms increased with age(P<0.01).The difference in the prevelence of depression symptoms among the elderly people with the different numbers of chronic conditions was statistically significant(P<0.01).The results of multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that the elderly people with lower SEP were more likely to suffer from the anxiety symptoms(OR=0.707,95% CI0.566～0.883),depression symptoms(OR=0.492,95% CI0.438～0.552),and mixed anxiety-depressive disorder symptoms(OR=0.602,95% CI0.469～0.773).Conclusion There are significant socio-economic differences in the prevalence of anxiety symptoms and depression symptoms among the elderly people in Dai rural areas of Jinggu County,Yunnan province.Future mental health interventions should more focus on females,elderly people with advanced age,multiple chronic diseases and low SEP,so as to reduce the occurrence of depression symptoms and anxiety symptoms.