American Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience 2014; 2(1): 1-7 Published online January 20, 2014 (http://www.sciencepublishinggroup.com/j/ajpn) doi: 10.11648/j.ajpn.20140201.11 Factors associated with elderly depression among rural Bangladeshi individuals Jui Das 1 , Fahmida Dil Farzana 1 , Farzana Ferdous 1 , Shahnawaz Ahmed 1 , Sarah Tegenfeldt 1 , Repon Chandra Paul 1 , Mohammod Jobayer Chisti 1 , Abu Syed Golam Faruque 1 , Sumon Kumar Das 1, 2, * 1 Centre for Nutrition and Food Security, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh, Shaheed Tajuddin Ahmed Sarani, Mohakhali, Bangladesh 2 School of Population Health, The University of Queensland, Herston Rd, Herston, QLD 4006, Australia Email address: jui_das26@yahoo.com (J. Das), fahmidaf@icddrb.org (F. D. Farzana), farzanaf@icddrb.org (F. Ferdous), shahnawz@icddrb.org (S. Ahmed), sarah.tegenfeldt@gmail.com (S. Tegenfeldt), repon@icddrb.org (R. C. Paul), chisti@icddrb.org (M. J. Chisti), gfaruque@icddrb.org (A. S. G. Faruque), sumon@icddrb.org (S. K. Das) To cite this article: Jui Das, Fahmida Dil Farzana, Farzana Ferdous, Shahnawaz Ahmed, Sarah Tegenfeldt, Repon Chandra Paul, Mohammod Jobayer Chisti, Abu Syed Golam Faruque, Sumon Kumar Das. Factors Associated with Elderly Depression among Rural Bangladeshi Individuals. American Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience. Vol. 2, No. 1, 2014, pp. 1-7. doi: 10.11648/j.ajpn.20140201.11 Abstract: Background: Depression is a chronic disorder, which often remains undiagnosed. There is a gross lack of evidence-based information about depressive illnesses among adult individuals from rural Bangladesh. Objective: The present study aimed to determine the factors that are associated with depressive illness but remain undiagnosed among rural healthy adult individuals. Methodology: A cross-sectional study was conducted in the Demographic Surveillance System area of rural Mirzapur sub-district, during April to September 2010. A total of 130 apparently healthy individuals [no history of hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, hepatic (serum alanine transaminase; ALT) or renal (serum creatinine) dysfunction; diabetic mellitus (fasting blood sugar)] aged 40 years and above were randomly selected from the DSS database. Level of depression was assessed using 30-item Geriatric Depression Scale. Results: Forty-two percent of the healthy participants were found to have mild depression, 17% were severely depressed. In multivariate analysis, females had a 2.79 [95% CI-0.94-8.26] times higher risk for depression compared to males. Healthy elderly individuals (≥60 years) had a 2.79 [0.94-8.33] times higher risk for depression compared to their middle-aged counterparts (40-59 years). Furthermore, individuals who consumed a vegetable-based diet were at 2.47 [0.85-7.15] times higher risk for depression; individuals with low monthly income were at 2.57 [0.94-7.01] times higher, and those with poor wealth index were 1.55 [1.07-2.25] times more likely to suffer from depression compared to their counterparts after adjusting for vitamin B12, folic acid, ALT, and blood hemoglobin. Conclusion: Healthy elderly individuals from rural Bangladesh were more depressed than middle-aged adults; and females with poor socio-economic status were at higher risk for depression than males. Keywords: Bangladesh, Depression, Elderly, Healthy, Rural 1. Introduction Depression is a combination of feelings including: sadness, loneliness, irritability, worthlessness, hopelessness, agitation, and guilt, accompanied by an array of physical symptoms [1]. Depression appears as a serious public health concern in both developed and developing countries [2]. Although individuals irrespective of age, sex, and socio cultural background often suffer from varying levels of depressive illnesses; among the elderly (60 years and above) it is the most common psychiatric disorder [3-8]. It affects approximately 121 million elderly people worldwide; a leading cause of disability and the fourth leading contributor to the global burden of disease [9]. However, depression is often difficult to diagnose [5]. Globally, the proportion of elderly individuals is expected to become more than double in the next 40 years, going from 6.9 billion to 16.4 billion between 2000 and 2050 [10]. Though, much of the elderly population lives in developed countries, it has been estimated that about 60% of the 580 million elderly in the world live in developing