Occurrence and development of depression at various types of facilities for seniors – use of Geriatric depression scale

Overview

The number of diagnosed and treated patients still does not correspond with the real occurrence of this disease. At the same time, it is a generally accepted fact that undiagnosed and untreated depression worsens self-sufficiency and the quality of life for the patients and significantly worsens the patient’s self-sufficiency and quality of life. The goal of this work was to map the occurrence of depression in patients hospitalised at facilities offering follow up and long-term care and to evaluate the development of depression over time.

Patients and methods:
100 seniors hospitalised at a facility for treatment of chronically ill patients, examined according to the geriatric depression scale according to Sheikha and Yesavage within two weeks of admission and after 6 weeks at the facility. Another 100 patients – clients of a social care facility – were examined twice with a gap of 8 weeks between the examinations, regardless of admission to any further facilities. The results were processed using standard statistical methods.

Results:
The occurrence of depressive symptoms has been high according to the average results of the depression scale and it was similar in both samples of patients – 36% in patients at the chronic care facility and 42% in clients of the social care facility. Another measure showed a statistically significant higher occurrence of depressive symptoms among chronic care facility patients over the age of 80 and among social care facility clients with high school level education. From other possible factors in development of depressive symptoms, multimorbidity was found to be significant – specifically being treated for more than 6 diseases, having undergone more than three hospitalisations within the last year, presence of an oncologic disease and presence of worries regarding the future. Technically speaking, some formulations from the geriatric depression scale showed to be inappropriate for certain patients in certain situations.

Conclusions:
Occurrence and development of depressive symptoms was comparable at both facilities. Higher rates of depressive symptoms were displayed among chronic care facility patients over the age of 80 and among social care facility clients with high school level education. Higher occurrence of depressive symptoms correlated with higher general sickness rate, presence of oncologic diseases and declared worries about the future in all of the monitored patients, regardless of the type of facility. The current version of geriatric depression scale as per Sheikh and Yesavage contains formulations which can be unclear to some seniors.

Keywords:
Seniors – depression – geriatric depression scale