Burden and Correlates of Geriatric Depression in the Uyghur Elderly Population, Observation from Xinjiang, China

BACKGROUND With the gradual aging of the population, geriatric depression has become a major public health issue in China owing to its overall upward trend and associated negative socio-economic impact. Dearth of information regarding the burden and correlates of geriatric depression among Uyghur minority population in Xinjiang Autonomous Region, called for a comprehensive survey involving representative sample for designing efficient targeted intervention to control this disabling disease. METHODS A cross-sectional study was conducted among 1329 consenting Uyghur elderly in 2011 in six randomly selected communities/villages in Xinjiang. Information about socio-demographics, behavior, negative life-events, satisfaction regarding income/quality of life and other chronic diseases were collected while assessment of geriatric depression was done using Geriatric Mental State Schedule (GMS). RESULTS Among these participants, majority were currently married, had attended elementary school or less, had an average annual family income of less than 3000 Yuan/person, had strong religious beliefs while 10.61% (2.77% in urban and 23.60% in rural area) had geriatric depression (5.91% among male and 14.58% among females). 61.83% were suffering from other chronic diseases, 96.16% could take care of themselves and 39.28% had experienced negative events during last two years. Religious belief (AOR = 3.92, 95% CI 1.18-13.03), satisfaction regarding quality of life (AOR = 0.53, 95% CI 0.37-0.84) and income (AOR = 0.75, 95% CI 0.35-1.60), suffering from more chronic diseases (AOR = 1.70, 95% CI 1.42-2.04), experiencing three or more negative events (AOR = 1.72, 95% CI 0.92-3.22) and lack of ability to take self-care (AOR = 2.20, 95% CI 1.09-4.48) were all associated with having geriatric depression with or without adjustment for gender, education and occupation. CONCLUSION High prevalence of geriatric depression among Uyghur elderly in Xinjiang seemed to call for urgent interventions, specifically targeting rural residents, who experienced more negative life-events, were suffering from chronic diseases and were dissatisfied with their income and quality of life.