Social demographic predictors of depression among elderly patients in a community in south-south Nigeria
1 Department of Family Medicine. Eku Baptist Government Hospital. Eku Delta State.
2 Department of Family Medicine. Delta State University Teaching Hospital, Oghara Delta State.
3 Department of Laboratory Science, Afe Babalola University. Ado-Ekiti. Ekiti State.
4 Department of Ear Nose and Throat. Delta State University. Oghara, Delta State.
Research Article
International Journal of Life Science Research Archive, 2026, 10(02), 061-072.
Article DOI: 10.53771/ijlsra.2026.10.2.0027
Publication history:
Received on 18 February 2026; revised on 26 April 2026; accepted on 29 April 2026
Abstract:
The prevalence of depression among the elderly is high. It is often under-diagnosed and under treated in primary care because it co-exists with co-morbidity and psycho social problems. Education and employment are protective against depression and mental disorders in general while the risk of common mental disorder is higher for the poor, the unemployed, individuals with low education, and the physically ill, however, this finding has not always been consistent.
The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence of depression and its relationship with the social demographic characteristics of the target population.
The study was a hospital based descriptive cross-sectional study that was done in Eku (Delta State, Nigeria). The study instruments were Questionnaires which included a validated tool (Geriatric Depression Scale SF-15), social demographic variables, medical history and physical examination findings.
Data were collated and analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS-21). Test of association was done using Pearson’s chi square (or Fisher’s exact test). The level of significance was set at 5% (p<0.05).
About half of the subjects, one hundred and two (49.5%) had depressive symptoms while one hundred and four (50.5%) had no depressive symptoms. A higher proportion respondent who never got married(75.0%) had depression compared to (34.9%) of the currently married respondents. The relationship between marital status, income earned, respondents living alone, respondents with no child and depression were statistically significant.
Conclusion: Social demographic characteristic like marital status, level of education, living situation, number of children and average monthly income were found to be statistical significant on a bivariate analysis while the other variables were not statistically significant.
Keywords:
Depression; Elderly; Patients; Social demographic variable
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