Prevalence of depressive symptoms and associated factors among older adults living in aged care homes of Kathmandu Metropolitan City, Nepal

Depressive symptoms have become a global public health problem, with a predominant effect on the older adults. The studies on mental health status of older adults in Nepal are quite limited. In this study, we aim to assess the prevalence of depressive symptoms and associated factors among the older adults living in public aged care homes of Kathmandu Metropolitan City in Nepal. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 142 older adults; aged 60 years and above recruited through proportional simple random sampling from six aged care homes. The 15 item-Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) was used to assess the depressive symptoms among the participants. Associated factors were tested using Chi-square test; and a p-value of less than 0.05 with a confidence interval of 95% was used for statistical significance. More than half of the study participants, 58.5% (95% CI: 49.9%-66.7%) were found to have depressive symptoms. Among them, 38.7% had mild symptoms, 16.2% had moderate symptoms and 3.5% had severe symptoms. Age (OR = 2.25, 95% CI: 1.08-4.66), sex (OR = 2.36, 95% CI: 1.17-4.75), past family type (OR = 0.44, 0.22-0.89), chronic physical health problem (OR = 0.34, 95% CI: 0.12-0.98) and feelings of loneliness were found to have significant association with depressive symptoms among the older adults' population. The prevalence of depressive symptoms among the older adults in aged care homes in Kathmandu Metropolitan City is quite high and is found to be associated with age, sex, past family type, chronic physical health problems and feeling of loneliness. It is a concerning issue that requires targeted mental health programs and interventions in order to bring about a positive shift in their mental health condition. It also demands a robust collaboration between the local bodies, health institutions, administrators, private as well as nonprofit institutions to bring desirable change.