Depression and Associated Factors among Community-Dwelling Thai Older Adults in Northern Thailand: The Relationship between History of Fall and Geriatric Depression.

BACKGROUND

Globally, population aging is happening more quickly than in the past, and Thailand ranks the world's number three among the rapidly aging countries. Age-related decline in physical and mental health would impact depression among older adults. We aimed to determine the depression among the community-dwelling Thai older adults in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

METHODS

The baseline data, collected by door-to-door household visits of an intervention arm from a cluster randomized controlled trial (Community-Integrated Intermediary Care (CIIC): TCTR20190412004), were included in this cross-sectional study. Descriptive analysis and binary logistic regression were applied.

RESULTS

The mean age was 69.31 ± 7.10 years and 23.8% of study participants were older than 75 years. The Thai geriatric depression scale showed 6.5% had depression. Adjusted risk factors for depression were older age, being single, drinking alcohol daily, having diabetes, having experience of a fall last year, self-rated health as neutral, poor/very poor, and moderate/severe dependency by ADL scoring.

CONCLUSION

Our findings highlighted the potentially modifiable risk factors in addition to the common predictors affecting depression among community-dwelling older adults. Fall prevention programs and public health interventions to prevent diabetes are recommended. Furthermore, self-rated health and Barthel's ADL scoring would be simple tools to predict risk factors for geriatric depression.