Department of Geriatric Mental Health, Chhatrapati Sahuji Maharaj Medical University, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India.
Indian J Psychiatry. 2012 Apr;54(2):144-8. doi: 10.4103/0019-5545.99533.
An exceptional increase in the number and proportion of older adults in the country, rapid increase in nuclear families, and contemporary changes in psychosocial matrix and values often compel this segment of society to live alone or in old age homes. As this group of people is more vulnerable to mental health problems, therefore a pilot study was carried out by the Department of Geriatric Mental Health, Lucknow with following aim.
To study mental health and associated morbidities among inhabitants of old age homes.
It was an exploratory study in which information about available old age homes at Lucknow were obtained and three of them were randomly selected. All the heads of these institutions were contacted and permission to carry out the study was obtained. Consent from the participants was obtained. Survey Psychiatric Assessment Schedule (SPAS), Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE), Mood Disorder Questionnaire (MDQ), and SCAN-based clinical interviews were applied for assessment by a trained research staff.
Forty five elderly inhabitants who had given their consent to participate in the study were interviewed. Depression (37.7%) was found to be the most common mental health problem followed by anxiety disorders (13.3%) and dementia (11.1%).
A majority of the inhabitants (64.4%) were having psychiatric morbidity and no one was observed physically fit. Large sample studies are needed to substantiate the observations.
我国老年人口数量和比例的异常增加、核心家庭的迅速增加以及当代社会心理社会矩阵和价值观的变化，往往迫使这一社会群体独居或入住养老院。由于这一群体更容易出现心理健康问题，因此，勒克瑙老年精神健康系进行了一项试点研究，目的如下。
研究养老院居民的心理健康及相关发病情况。
这是一项探索性研究，其中获取了勒克瑙现有的养老院信息，并随机选择了其中 3 家。联系了这些机构的负责人，并获得了开展研究的许可。征得参与者的同意。由经过培训的研究人员应用调查性精神评估量表（SPAS）、简易精神状态检查（MMSE）、心境障碍问卷（MDQ）和基于 SCAN 的临床访谈进行评估。
对 45 名同意参加研究的老年居民进行了访谈。结果发现，最常见的心理健康问题是抑郁症（37.7%），其次是焦虑症（13.3%）和痴呆症（11.1%）。
大多数居民（64.4%）存在精神发病情况，没有人被观察到身体健康。需要进行大规模样本研究来证实这些观察结果。
