Mental Problems of Old Age Homes
Mental Problems of Old Age Homes
Mental Problems of Old Age Homes
It was an exploratory study and was carried out in old age homes of
Lucknow city. Prevalence of mental and physical health problems
among inhabitants of old age homes was explored. Out of seven old
age homes, three were randomly selected and heads of these
institutions were contacted regarding permission to carry out the
study. Three different types of old age homes were selected for the
study. One of them was established by a religious organization-
Gayatri Pariwar, in which the inhabitants had to pay a sum of Rs.
2500.00 as charges for their accommodation. The other two old age
homes were free of cost.
Contact was made with older adults of these old age homes and
their consent to participate in the study was taken. Survey
Psychiatric Assessment Schedule (SPAS),[16] Mini Mental Status
Examination (MMSE),[17] Mood Disorder Questionnaire (MDQ)
[18] Schedule for Clinical Assessment in Neuropsychiatry (SCAN)
[19] were used as screening and assessment tools. These tools were
applied by a qualified and SCAN trained research staff. To find out
the physical morbidity among these subjects, information was
obtained from them by enquiring about their physical health and
scanning the relevant documents (prescriptions of the doctors/
medications etc.).
MMSE, MDQ and SPAS were used to screen the old age home
inmates. The categorization into positive and negative cases was
done on the basis of the available norms for the particular tool.
Subjects who were found to be positive on these screening tools
were further interviewed by SCAN-based clinical interview to
arrive on to a diagnosis. The screening and SCAN-based clinical
interview was done by qualified and trained mental health
professionals. For assessing physical morbidities in the inhabitants,
qualitative information like prescriptions and test reports as well as
their own explanations (regarding physical symptoms/illness) were
taken into account.
All the participants were categorized into three sub-groups—young-
old: 60 to 69 years; old-old: 70 to 79 years; and oldest-old: 80 years
and above[20,21] and data analysis was done by employing
percentages and test of significance.
RESULTS
The study was carried out in three of the old age homes, the details of inhabitants of these old
age homes are given in Table 1.
A total of 45 inhabitants (20 males and 25 females) of three old age homes had given their
consent to participate in the study. Age wise and socio-demographic details of participant older
adults are given in Figure 1 and Table 2, respectively. Further, data is analyzed in view of age
and gender.
Figure 1 reveals that a majority of the elderly were in old-old age subcategory (Male=50%;
Female=64%) followed by young old (M=35%; Female=20%), and oldest old (Male=15%;
Female=16%). Among these inhabitants, a majority were females (55.6%). As the inhabitants
in different age categories were not found to be equally distributed or representative as per
the proportions in the community, the socio-demographic details are done accounting the
gender only.
A majority of inhabitants were illiterate (28.9%), followed by
primary level education (20%) and graduate and above (17.8%).
Only 6.7% of inhabitants had professional qualifications.
Proportionately majority of females were either illiterate (32%) or
having less education (primary = 28%; just literate = 12%). A
majority of the inhabitants were widowed (females = 88%; males =
65%). Among males, 15% of habitants were married and similar
proportion of males was unmarried; whereas in females only 12%
were having married status. A majority of the females were
financially dependent (84%), whereas a majority of the males (75%)
were financially independent.
Pattern of mental health problems
Table 3 reveals that a majority of inhabitants were suffering from depression (Males =
50.0%; Females = 28%). In males, the subsequent disorder was found to be dementia
(20%) followed by anxiety (10%) and schizophrenia (5%). Anxiety disorders were found
to be second leading disorders in females (16%). Dementia was found to be prevalent more
in males (20%) than females (4%). Mental health problems were found to more common in
the young-old group. In males, all elderly except one in each age group were suffering
from one or other mental health problem. In the group of young-old females, everyone was
suffering from one or the other mental disorders. Sixteen percent old-old females were
found to have depression followed by dementia (8%) and anxiety (4%) disorders.
Surprisingly, in the oldest-old group, none of the female was found to be mentally ill.
However, Fishers’ Exact P-value was found to be non-significant for various age categories
of males and significant for females i.e., Fishers’ Exact P-value=0.2379 (males) and 0.0212
(females).
Pattern of physical illnesses
Shows that all old age home inhabitants were having one
or the other physical health problem. A majority of the
subjects were having multiple physical morbidity in male
and female both and females outnumbered males
(Male=60%; Females=68%).
DISCUSSION
More than half of the inhabitants of old age homes were suffering from
one or other mental health problems.
Depression was the most common mental health problems.
The inhabitants suffering from psychiatric illness had one or more
associated physical morbidity(ies).
All inhabitants of old age homes were having one or more physical
morbidity(ies).
Limitations
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