Prevalence of depression, anxiety and stress disorders in elderly people residing in Khoy, Iran (2014-2015)

Introduction: Psychiatric disorders such as depression, stress, and anxiety are factors that affect the quality of life, suicide and many physical problems, and socioeconomic in elders. Considering the importance of the issue and increasing the number of elderly people in this County, researchers decided to investigate the levels of stress, anxiety, and depression in the elderly health centers of Khoy, Iran. Methods: This cross-sectional study was done on 383 elderly people referred to health centers in Khoy County. A random cluster sampling was used in this study where each health care is considered as a cluster. The Depression, Anxiety, Stress Scale 21 (DASS-21) standard questionnaire was used for data collection. The SPSS software was used for all computations. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistic, t-test, and one-way ANOVA. P < 0.050 was determined to be significant. Results: The results of this study showed that 1.3% of the elderly people suffer from very severe stress, 1.3% from severe depression, and 3.1% from severe anxiety. Likewise, the comparison between anxiety, stress, and depression disorders with demographic variables showed that there is a significant association between these disorders and sex, education, marital status, medical condition, as well as their housing conditions (P < 0.050). Conclusion: The results of this study indicated anxiety disorders, depression, and stress prevail among the elderly. In addition, some factors such as education, housing, medical condition, and marital status had significant effects on anxiety disorders, depression, and stress. Therefore, more attention is deserved in these aspects. Moreover, appropriate measures need to be taken to improve the mental health of elderly people.