The Prevalence of Depression among Elderly Attending Daycare Centers

Objective: To estimate the prevalence of depression among elderly attending Daycare centers. Design: A Cross-Sectional Study. Setting: Seven Daycare Centers, Bahrain. Method: The study was performed from 11 July 2010 to 31 July 2010 in all Daycare centers in Bahrain. Five hundred Bahrainis aged 60 years and more attending the Daycare centers were included. The shorter version of the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-15) was used to screen for depression among the study participants. Result: Five hundred elderly were registered in all Daycare centers; only 311 were present on the days of the study. Two hundred fifty-four participants agreed to take part in the study; one hundred and twenty-seven (50%) were females and one hundred and twenty-seven (50%) were males. The mean age of respondents was 65.5 years (SD 4.6), the mean age of males was slightly higher than females, 106 (41.7%) of the respondents scored = 5 on the depression scale. Sixty (47.2%) of the female interviewees were more likely to be depressed than the males. Illiterate respondents were more depressed than others. Respondents living alone were more likely to show depression than those living with a partner. Conclusion: Depressive symptoms are prevalent among Bahraini elderly attending Daycare centers. Only female gender, illiterate and living with partners showed important predictors of depression, although with wide confidence interval. Further study should be undertaken with a larger sample, involving those elderly who did not attend the centers.