Prevalence of depressive disorder among elderly people in China： a Meta-analysis

BackgroundDepressive disorder is one of the most common mental disorders in the elderly and the existing meta-analyses on the prevalence of depressive disorder among the elderly have mainly summarized the findings from patient self-rating scales or examiner-rating scales.ObjectiveTo examine the prevalence of depressive disorder among elderly people in China using Meta-analysis， aiming to provide references for interventions targeting elderly patients with depressive disorder.MethodsOn December 20， 2022， a computerized searches were conducted in databases including CNKI， Wanfang， VIP， SinoMed， PubMed， Springer， Web of Science and Embase to collect studies on the prevalence of depressive disorder among the elderly in China. The Joanna Briggs Institute （JBI） quality assessment tool was used to evaluate the included literature. A meta-analysis was conducted using the statistical software R version 4.2.2.ResultsA total of 29 studies involving 2 341 elderly patients with depressive disorder were included. The prevalence of depressive disorder among the elderly in China was 3.90% （95% CI： 0.030~0.049）. Subgroup analysis revealed that there was a statistical difference in the prevalence of depressive disorder between elderly people without spouses and those with spouses （χ2=6.844， P<0.01）.ConclusionThe prevalence of depressive disorder among the elderly in China is relatively high， and the prevalence of depressive disorder among those without a spouse is higher than that of those with a spouse. ［Funded by Hangzhou Science and Technology Development Project （number， 20201203B192）］