The Factors Related to Depression of the Elderly patients in Four Geriatric Hospital Located in B Metropolitan City

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify the factors related to depression of elderly patients in geriatric hospitals. Methods: The subjects were 195 elderly patients who met the inclusion criteria of scores more than 18 on the K-MMSE score and no reported mental disease. The data were collected from February 20 to March 20, 2009. The research instruments utilized in this study were depression (GDSSF-K), activities of daily living and self esteem (RSES), social support, life satisfaction. Data were analyzed Pearson correlation and Multiple Stepwise Regression using SPSS 15.0. Results: Depression score were negatively correlation with ADL, social support, life satisfaction and self-esteem. Among the factors studied related to depression, life satisfaction had highest explanatory power of 36.5% and it was followed by physical health status and activity of daily living. These explained 43.7% of the depression. Conclusion: The mean GDSSF-K 8.94, which indicates the higher than middle levels of depression. The findings suggest that it is important to develop educational programs to increase life satisfaction, physical health status and activity of daily living. Nursing interventions, including volunteer activities, health promotion program, and sports program could be useful in enhancing these factors.