Prevalencia de la depresión en los adultos mayores del Centro de Salud el Paraíso durante el periodo de noviembre 2022 – abril 2023

Abstract

Background: Depression is a disease that affects mental health worldwide, especially in the elderly, it is associated with different risk factors such as: genetic, biological, social, cultural and environmental factors that modify and alter the normalcourse of the physiological aging process. Objective: To determine the prevalence of depression in older adults at the " Paraíso" Health Center during the period November 2022 - April 2023. Methodology: A descriptive cross-sectional cohort study was carried out with a sample of 140 participants from the population attending “the Paraíso" HealthCenter. For data collection, the sociodemographic variables form was applied and the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) was used as an instrument. The datacollected were transcribed and analyzed in the statistical program SPSS V 15 and later the results were interpreted in tables of frequencies, percentages and crosstabs with their respective analyses. Results: Of the population under study, it was found that 100% of the sample investigated, 65% of the older adults presented signs and symptoms of depressionin mild degrees of 38.6%, moderate with 15.7% and severe with 10.7% according to the results of the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS). Conferring to the sociodemographic data, the most frequent age is 65 to 69 years with 55%, predominantly female and within chronic degenerative diseases, the 67.3% constitute patients with arterial hypertension. Conclusions: A high prevalence of depression was found in older adults aged 65 -69 years, with mild and moderate signs and symptoms prevailing