Correlation of Depression and Quality of Life among Rural Elderly

Ageing is a life spanning process of growth and development from Birth to death. Old age is an integral part of the whole, bringing fulfilment and self actualization. Ageing, along with the functional decline, economic dependence, and social cut off, autonomy of young generation, adds to depression, which further compromises their quality of life. The study was undertaken to correlate the level of depression and quality of life among 95 elderly selected through systematic random sampling technique, in a rural community of Amritsar, Punjab. Tools used were Geriatric Depression Scale and WHO QOL-BREF scale. The obtained data was analysed and interpreted using descriptive and inferential statistics. The major findings of the study reveal that that 81(89.5%) of elderly had mild depression and only 4(4.2%) were severe depressed. Present study reveals that majority 92(96.8%) had good quality of life and only 3(3.2%) had average quality of life. In domain wise quality of life, in environment domain majority of elderly 87(91.6%) had good quality of life. Present study shows that the correlation between depression and quality of life depicts that there is correlation between depression and environment wellbeing domain with r value 0.297.