Evaluation of risk factors for depression in the elderly: A Systematic review

Background: Today, the aging population is growing due to medical advances and risinglife expectancy. Studies show an increasing number of psychiatric disorders among theelderly population in different communities. Depression is one of the most commonpsychiatric disorders in the elderly that affects all aspects of their quality of life andincreases the risk of suicide and health care costs. Considering the importance ofdepression as one of the most common psychiatric disorders in old age and its significanteffect on the quality of life of the elderly, the present study was conducted to investigatethe risk factors for depression in the elderly.Material and Methods: The present study was conducted by systematic review. To accessthe content related to risk factor for depression and elderly, articles indexed in databasesScience Direct, PubMed, Scopus, Google scholar, SID, Magiran, ISC were used. Keywordsincluding depression, risk factor, elderly and mental health were searched over 2005 to 2020.According to the defined criteria, finally 15 Full text articles were reviewed in this study.Results: The results of the present study showed that depression is the most commonpsychiatric disorder in the elderly. Risk factors of depression in old age include: feelinglonely due to rejection, feeling of anonymity and aimlessness due to retirement, physicalproblems due to illness and disability and chronic and severe pain, fear of death, worrydue to financial problems. Although the rate of depression in old age is higher than inyouth, but this disorder is rarely diagnosed in old age and only 10% of patients are treated.Conclusions: A systematic review of previous research shows that the prevalence ofdepression in the elderly is increasing. The identification of high-risk persons in the earlystages of the disease is very important in reducing the morbidity of depression in theelderly. Therefore, strategies should be developed to reduce the risk factors fordepression, prevention, diagnosis and treatment in the elderly, because depression canexacerbate physical illness and lead to premature death. Strategies such as regularscreening and increasing psychological and therapeutic services for the elderly can reducedepression and improve their quality of life.

Keywords:

Elderly , depression , mental health , risk factor