International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health | April 2021 | Vol 8 | Issue 4 Page 1571 International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health Mali P et al. Int J Community Med Public Health. 2021 Apr;8(4):1571-1577 http://www.ijcmph.com pISSN 2394-6032 | eISSN 2394-6040 Original Research Article Depression and its associated factors among elderly people of old age homes and community of Kathmandu district, Nepal: a comparative study Prajita Mali 1 *, Eak Narayan Poudel 2 , Sushmita Mali 3 , Lisasha Poudel 3 , Santosh Prakash Joshi 4 INTRODUCTION Ageing is considered as the continuous, universal, progressive and deleterious process of growing older with the flow of time in one’s life. 1 According to the senior citizen act of Nepal 2006, senior citizens are “People who are 60 years and above”. 2 During the old age, elderly people may become victim of various mental problems. Among these disorders, depression is considered as a common public health problem with the increasing life expectancy worldwide which is associated with morbidity as well as disability among the elderly. It is projected that, the world's above 60 years population will be nearly double from 12% to 22% between the years 2015 and 2050 and similarly, depression’s prevalence is also projected to increase in alarming rate. 3,4 Elderly with depression suffering from various physical disorders have a negative influence on the course of the depression ABSTRACT Background: Depression is a common public health problem among elders worldwide and is associated with high morbidity and disability. This study aims to assess depression and its associated factors among elderly in old-age homes and a community of Kathmandu district. Method: A comparative cross-sectional study recruited 122 elderly from old-age homes and a community of Kathmandu district. Depression was measured using the Geriatric Depression Scale-short scale (GDS-15). Socio- demographic and medical history was collected using semi-structured questionnaire. We utilized bivariate logistic regression to assess the association of depression with each variable. Results: The prevalence of depression among elderly in old-age homes was 74.6% and in community was 41.8%. The study found that elderly residing at old age homes were four (OR=4.087; 95% CI=2.373-7.038) times more likely to have depression than those residing in the community. Age was found to be associated with depression among the respondent of both settings. In old-age homes, not receiving old-age allowance, bad perception of life, bad social relation, having a chronic disease, lack of care from family, stress and weeping as stress coping strategy were associated with depression. In the community, stress, non-involvement in family decision making, feeling of neglect, dysfunctional capability, bad social relation, lesser monthly income had positive relation with depression. Conclusion: Depression is highly prevalent among Nepalese elderly, with higher burden in those living in old-age homes. This emphasizes the need for screening of depression among elderly, to initiate early intervention measures. Key words: Geriatric depression, Geriatric depression scale, Old-age home 1 Department of Public Health, Om Health Campus, Kathmandu, Nepal 2 Department of Community Medicine, Chitwan Medical College, Chitwan, Nepal 3 Department of Community Program, Dhulikhel Hospital-Kathmandu University Hospital, Nepal 4 Department of Agriculture, Gokuleshwor Agriculture and Animal Science College, Baitadi, Nepal Received: 05 February 2021 Accepted: 08 March 2021 *Correspondence: Prajita Mali, E-mail: prajitamali@gmail.com Copyright: © the author(s), publisher and licensee Medip Academy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20211205