Depressive Symptoms and the Associated Factors Among the Older People Living in Residential Care Home: A Case Report from Hong Kong

Depression is a common mental health problem, but not easily be detected and resulting in under-treatment among the elderly residential care home (RCH) resi-dents. This case study aimed to investigate the prevalence of depressive symptoms and its associated factors among the older people from four elderly RCHs in Hong Kong. Participants’ depressive symptoms were assessed by Patient Health Questionnaire-8 (PHQ-8). Higher score indicates more severe depressive symptoms suffered. The data were collected by interview. A total of 242 eligible participants were recruited in this study. The overall mean score of PHQ-8 was 5.95. The prevalence rate of depressive symptoms was 58.2%. There were significant differences in depressive symptoms among participants with different educational levels, different length of stay in RCHs and total number of co-morbidities. No significant results were found with the age groups and gender. This study reported a high prevalence rate and the associated factors of depressive symptoms among the elderly RCH residents. Appropriate strategies should be implemented to address this mental health problem by prevention and early detection.