Factors Associated with Depressive Symptoms Among Community-Dwelling Older People in East-Coast Malaysia

Older peopleare increasing in numberglobally, and they arelikely to have mental health problems, including de-pression.In this population, the risk of having depressivesymptoms isvery high due to multidimensionalfactors, butthese symptoms are often undertreated. This study aimed todetermine the prevalence and associated factors of de-pressivesymptoms among community-dwelling older peopleliving on theEast CoastofMalaysia. A cross-sectional study was conducted in several areas of the state ofTerengganu based onmultilayered stratified sampling. Atotal of 240 participants were randomly selected. Several instruments were employed, such as the Geriatric Depression Scale, University of California Los Angeles Loneliness Scale, Pittsburgh Sleep QualityIndex, Elderly Cognitive Assessment Questionnaire, Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support, Duke University Religion Index, Barthel Modified Index, and Instrumental Activities of Daily Living Scale.The prevalence of depressivesymptoms was 24.6%. The re-sultsof the multivariatelogistic regression modelalso revealed that being a single elderly (adjusted odd ratio [aOR]= 4.42; Confidence Interval [CI]= 1.22; 15.96), poor social support (aOR = 3.06; CI = 1.18; 7.93), loneliness (aOR = 21.11; CI = 9.87;45.18), impaired functional status (aOR = 3.39; CI =1.22; 9.39), impaired instrumental function (aOR = 6.09; CI = 1.95; 19.0),and havingasthma (aOR =14.14; CI =2.83;70.5) were associated with depressivesymptoms.Thus, screening older peopleduringprimary care is needed for early detection of depressionand initiation of communi-ty-based interventionsto address the psychological aspects of this disorder