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Combined effect of vision and hearing impairment on depression in elderly Chinese
- Authors:
- CHOU Kee-Lee, CHI Iris
- Journal article citation:
- International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 19(9), September 2004, pp.825-832.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
Sensory impairment and depression are common in old age and the relation between depression and vision as well as hearing impairment have been established. However, few studies have directly compared their effects and examined the impact of dual sensory loss. The purpose of this study is to compare impacts of self-reported hearing and vision loss as well as the effect of double sensory impairment on depression. This article analyzes cross-sectional data collected from a representative community sample of 2,003 Chinese elderly people aged 60 or above in Hong Kong. Respondents were interviewed in a face-to-face format and data including vision and hearing impairment, socio-demographic variables, health indicators, family support, and depression were obtained. Logistic regression analyses revealed that visual impairment was significantly related to depression even after age, gender, marital status, education, self-reported health status, the presence of 11 diseases, functional limitation and family support were controlled but hearing loss was not. Hearing impairment did not add to the likelihood of depression where visual impairment was already present. The impact of visual impairment on psychological well-being among elderly Chinese is more robust than hearing loss. Therefore, aged care service practitioners must take this risk factor into consideration in their preventive intervention and treatment for psychological well-being.
Childlessness and psychological well-being in Chinese older adults
- Authors:
- CHOU Kee-Lee, CHI Iris
- Journal article citation:
- International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 19(5), May 2004, pp.449-457.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
Childless older adults will increase rapidly in the coming future due to delayed marriage, infertility, and high divorce rate. The authors examined whether childlessness is significantly related to loneliness and depression and whether the effect of childlessness persisted even when other factors including gender, marital status, age, education, self-rated health status and financial strain were controlled for. This article analyzes cross-sectional data collected from a representative community sample of 2003 Chinese elderly people aged 60 or above in Hong Kong. Respondents were interviewed in face-to-face format and data including socio-demographic variables, health indicators, loneliness and depression were obtained. Logistic regression analyses revealed that childlessness was significantly related to loneliness and depression even after marital status, gender, age, education, self-reported health status, and financial strain were controlled for. The impact of childlessness on psychological well-being among elderly Chinese is more robust than that found in older Americans. Moreover, consistent with the findings of previous studies, we found that the effect of childlessness on psychological well-being has to be investigated in the context of marital status. Therefore, aged care service practitioners must take this risk factor into consideration in their preventive intervention and treatment for psychological well-being.
Prevalence and correlates of depression in Chinese oldest-old
- Authors:
- CHOU Kee-Lee, CHI Iris
- Journal article citation:
- International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 20(1), January 2005, pp.41-50.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
In Hong Kong, the aged population will be increased rapidly in the coming three decades and the oldest-old (aged 80 and above) is the fastest growing age group. In this paper, we examined the prevalence rate and the correlates of depression for the oldest-old. This article analyzes cross-sectional data collected from a representative community sample of 1 903 Chinese elderly people aged 60 or above in Hong Kong. Respondents were interviewed in face-to-face format with structural questionnaire. Using 8 as the cut-off point for the 15-item Geriatric Depression Scale, we found that the prevalence rate was greater for the oldest-old (31.1% ± 9.7%) than for the young-old (aged between 60 and 69; 19.1% ± 2.8%) and the old-old (aged 70 and 79; 22.4% ± 4.2%) groups. Logistic regression analyses revealed that financial strain, poor self-rated health, loneliness, and heart disease were significantly and positively related to depression in the oldest-old after gender, marital status, education, living arrangement, functional disability, sensory impairment, cognitive ability, and the presence of eight medical conditions were controlled. Interestingly, financial strain, self-rated health, and loneliness were found to be significant correlates of depression in the young-old and the old-old groups, too. Depression is a serious problem for the oldest-old but a number of correlates are consistently identified in the oldest-old, as well as the two other age groups in the elderly population. Therefore, aged care service practitioners must take these correlates into consideration in their prevention and treatment for depression for all different age groups in the aged.