Prevalence and determinants of depressive symptoms in elderly assisted in outpatient service

OBJECTIVE: To estimate the prevalence of depressive symptoms and evaluate its association with sociodemographic factors and health status in elderly patients from specialized geronto-geriatric outpatient service. METHODS: Epidemiological, descriptive, quantitative, cross-sectional study. The sample consisted of 301 elderly aged 60 and over, both sexes. Face to face interview was held with each participant, and the diagnosis of depressive symptoms were defined through the use of the Geriatric Depression Scale in reduced version of Yesavage (GDS-15). Data were processed with SPSS 13.0 software, performing descriptive statistics, associations test using the Chi-square test, Fisher's exact test and the test for comparison between two means. To check the effect of the independent variables, a linear regression model was used. RESULTS: The overall prevalence of depressive symptoms accounted for 16.3%, following the current epidemiological trend described in the literature. When analyzed using binomial generalized linear model, only self-perceived health, compared with health and hearing handicap were associated. CONCLUSION: Strategies aimed at identifying factors associated with depression may help many professional health services, entered at any level of attention, to understand the reality of these individuals, as well as diagnose and propose possible earlier and more appropriate intervention.