A Comparative Study On Depressive Symptoms And Its Influencing Factors Between Urban And Rural Elderly Population In Shenyang

Objective: This study was designed to understand the current situation of depressive symptoms of the elderly in urban and rural areas in Shenyang.The relevant influencing factors were analyzed from the aspects of demographic characteristics,health status,behavioral factors and social-psychological factors aiming to provide evidence for reducing the incidence of depressive symptoms and putting forward corresponding measures for improving the quality of life of the elderly.Methods: Random cluster sampling method was performed in this study.For urban area,sujiatun was randomly selected from Shenyang city,and then a street was randomly selected from the sujiatun,and a community was randomly selected from the street.And then,one village(Shilihelangzijie village of Sujiatun)from rural areas was randomly sampled.All the elderly who lived for more than 5 years,aged 65 or above,and did not suffer from alzheimer’s disease were identified as the subjects of the survey.A total of1938 people were investigated,and 1608 questionnaires were obtained,with an effective response rate of 83%.After cognitive function screening,1490 elderly people without cognitive impairment were included in this study,among whom 952 were from urban areas and 538 were from rural areas.The geriatric depression scale-15 was used to assess the depressive symptoms.The data analysis was performed by SPSS 20.0.Results: The prevalence of depressive symptoms in total population is 19.7%.Furthermore,the prevalence of depressive symptoms of elderly in urban area was 18.8%and the prevalence of depressive symptoms of elderly in urban area was 21.2%.There was no statistically significant difference between urban and rural(P<0.05).In the general population,the logistic regression analysis showed that,after adjusting the age in the model,the associated factors with depressive symptoms successively were,in OR sequence,living arrangement(OR=5.04),chronic disease(OR=3.28),participating in leisure activities(OR=2.64),children filial piety,living independent,sleeping quality,visual ability,watching television often,regular diet,marital status,smoking.The interaction between urban and rural factors and risk factorswas tested,and the results showed that the urban and rural factors had significant interaction effects with the elder individual behavior and social psychological factors.For the urban area elderly,the logistic regression analysis showed that,after adjusting the age in the model,the associated factors with depressive symptoms successively were,in OR sequence,living arrangement(OR=5.78),neighborhood relations(OR=3.31),chronic disease(OR=2.35),living independent,participating in leisure activities,being afraid of falling down,watching television often,visual ability,smoking,regular diet.For the rural area elderly,the logistic regression analysis showed that,after adjusting the age in the model,the associated factors with depressive symptoms successively were,in OR sequence,living independent(OR=3.84),chronic disease(OR=3.81),participating in leisure activities(OR=3.72),marital status,being afraid of falling down,children filial piety,quality of sleep,watching television often.Conclusion: This study was the first attempt to assess depressive symptoms and identify its associated factors among the elderly in urban and rural areas in Shenyang.The results showed that the prevalence of depressive symptoms in the elderly in Shenyang were similar to that in other areas.In addition,there was no statistically significant difference in the prevalence of depressive symptoms between urban and rural areas in Shenyang.There were significant differences in the elderly between urban and rural areas in demographic information,health status,individual behavior and social psychological factors.In addition,there were differences in the specific factors of depressive symptoms.For the urban area elderly,the most significant effect of depressive symptoms was demographic information and followed by social psychological factors.For the urban area elderly,the most significant effect of depressive symptoms was health status and followed by social psychological factors.