Undiagnosed depression among older adults living in a semi urban community in Southern Sri Lanka

Introduction: Depression is common in late life. Sri Lankan studies on depression in community living elderly are scarce. A sample of community living older people was assessed for presence of depressive symptoms. Methods: Randomly selected 300 people aged above 50 years from Bope-Poddala MOH area who were not diagnosed with neurological illness, major psychiatric illness and not having severe visual or hearing impairment were screened using Geriatric Depression Scale-Sinhala version (GDS-S). Medical records were examined and diagnoses of non-communicable diseases were recorded; Results: The majority were females (n=183, 61%). The mean age was 62 (SD=8) years. Twenty nine percent of subjects were still working. Thirty six percent (males - 40% and females - 36%) had sought medical treatment for non-communicable diseases. Twenty five participants (10% of males, 7.% of females) met criteria for depression (GDS-S score >= 6). Nine percent of those who were aged 50-64 years and 7.4% of those who were older than 64 years were found to have depressive symptoms.