Effect of socio-demographic factors on depression of the elderly

The study on effect of gender, education, type of family, per capita income, number of children and gender combination of children on the depression of the elderly was carried out in Dharwad city (North Karnataka). The sample comprised 220 elderly persons including both male and female with the age ranging between 50-70 years. The scale constructed and standardized by Karim and Tiwari (1986) was used to measure the level of depression. The results revealed that a larger proportion of the respondents had low level of depression. A significant difference in the depression level was found in the respondents belonging to different gender and educational level and a non-significant difference in the respondents belonging to different type of family. The per capita income was found to have negative and significant relationship with depression. Lastly, the number of children was found to have positive and non-significant relationship with depression.