Department of Psychiatry, Shanghai East Hospital, Tongji University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200092, China.
Arch Gerontol Geriatr. 2012 Nov-Dec;55(3):574-9. doi: 10.1016/j.archger.2012.06.011. Epub 2012 Jul 6.
Geriatric depression is now very common and leads to significant economic costs and family burden in China. Families with a depressed patient often report problematic family functioning in Western samples, and lack of social support is strongly associated with geriatric depression. However, the relationship between geriatric depression, family functioning and social support in mainland China has not been well studied.
This study compared family functioning and social support in a Chinese sample of elderly patients with major depression and non-depressed elderly people, and evaluated the impact of family functioning, social support and socio-demographic factors on depression. A questionnaire was administered to 102 elderly patients with major depression and 107 non-depressed elderly people.
The elderly patients with major depression had worse family functioning and lower social support than elderly individuals without depression. Multivariate linear regression analysis showed associations between depressive symptoms and unhealthy family functioning, lower social support and single marital status.
The findings suggest that family interventions and improvement of social support are important in reducing depression among elderly patients. In addition, strategies to alleviate geriatric depression should be considered by the whole society, the community, family members and the depressed elderly patients themselves.
老年抑郁症在当今中国非常普遍，给患者家庭带来了巨大的经济负担和精神压力。在西方样本中，有抑郁患者的家庭往往报告存在家庭功能障碍的问题，而社会支持的缺乏与老年抑郁症密切相关。然而，中国内地老年抑郁症患者、家庭功能和社会支持之间的关系尚未得到充分研究。
本研究比较了中国老年抑郁症患者和非抑郁老年人群的家庭功能和社会支持情况，并评估了家庭功能、社会支持和社会人口因素对抑郁的影响。对 102 名老年抑郁症患者和 107 名非抑郁老年人进行问卷调查。
老年抑郁症患者的家庭功能和社会支持明显差于非抑郁老年人。多元线性回归分析显示，抑郁症状与不健康的家庭功能、较低的社会支持和单身婚姻状况有关。
研究结果表明，家庭干预和提高社会支持对于减少老年患者的抑郁情绪非常重要。此外，全社会、社区、家庭成员和老年抑郁症患者自身都应考虑采取策略来缓解老年抑郁症。
