Nair Sreejith S, Raghunath Pooja, Nair Sreekanth S
Department of Community Medicine, Navodaya Medical College, Raichur, Karnataka, India.
Department of Microbiology, Pushpagiri Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Center, Tiruvalla, Kottayam, Kerala, India.
Cent Asian J Glob Health. 2015 Mar 10;4(1):138. doi: 10.5195/cajgh.2015.138. eCollection 2015.
Increasing life expectancy around the world, an outstanding achievement of our century, has brought with it new public health challenges. India is the second most populous country in the world, with over 72 million inhabitants above 60 years of age as of 2001. The life expectancy in India increased from 32 years in 1947 to over 66 years in 2010, with 8.0% of the population now reaching over 60 years of age. Few studies in India target the health, especially mental health, of this geriatric population. This study aims to estimate the current prevalence of psychiatric disorders in the geriatric population of the rural area of Singanodi,Karnataka, India.
This cross sectional, epidemiological, community-based study was conducted in a rural health training area of Singanodi, Raichur District, Karnataka, India.The General Health Questionnaire-12, Mini Mental State Examination, and Geriatric Depression Scale were administered to 366 participants. Chi square tests with Yates correction were utilized for statistical analysis using SPSS 19.0 software.
We found that 33.9% of the geriatric population in the selected province were above the threshold for mental illness based on the GHQ-12 questionnaire. Females had a higher prevalence of mental disorder at 77.6% (152 out of 196) as compared to males who had a prevalence of 42.4% (72 out of 170). The most common psychiatric disorder was depression (21.9%), and generalized anxiety was present in 10.7% of the study population. Prevalence of cognitive impairment was 16.3%, with a significantly higher percentage of affected individuals in 80+ age group.
Mental disorders are common among elderly people, but they are not well documented in rural India. The assessment of psychiatric disorder prevalence will help strengthen psycho-geriatric services and thus improve the quality of life of the elderly. A system that ensures comprehensive health care will have to be developed for this purpose as part of our future efforts.
全球预期寿命的延长是我们这个世纪的一项杰出成就，但也带来了新的公共卫生挑战。印度是世界上人口第二多的国家，截至2001年，60岁以上的居民超过7200万。印度的预期寿命从1947年的32岁增加到2010年的66岁以上，目前8.0%的人口年龄超过60岁。印度针对这一老年人群健康状况，尤其是心理健康状况的研究很少。本研究旨在估计印度卡纳塔克邦辛加诺迪农村地区老年人群中精神障碍的当前患病率。
这项横断面、基于社区的流行病学研究在印度卡纳塔克邦赖丘尔区辛加诺迪的一个农村卫生培训区进行。对366名参与者进行了一般健康问卷-12、简易精神状态检查表和老年抑郁量表测试。使用SPSS 19.0软件，采用经耶茨校正的卡方检验进行统计分析。
我们发现，根据GHQ-12问卷，所选省份33.9%的老年人群达到了精神疾病阈值。女性精神障碍患病率较高，为77.6%（196人中有152人），而男性患病率为42.4%（170人中有72人）。最常见的精神障碍是抑郁症（21.9%），10.7%的研究人群存在广泛性焦虑。认知障碍患病率为16.3%，80岁以上年龄组受影响个体的比例明显更高。
精神障碍在老年人中很常见，但在印度农村地区记录并不充分。对精神障碍患病率的评估将有助于加强老年精神卫生服务，从而提高老年人的生活质量。为此，作为我们未来工作的一部分，必须建立一个确保全面医疗保健的系统。
