Late Life Depression: Review of Perception, Assessment and Management in Community Dwellers

Abstract

Depression is one of the mental health conditions identified and projected to be the second leading cause of burden of disease in late life and unfortunately concerns for its debilitating consequences have birthed the need for continuous studies into its etiology, risk factors and management options across all populations and samples [1]. As the world aged population increases (by 2 billion persons in the next 30 years from 7.7 billion currently to 9.7 billion in 2050), number of older adults aged 65 years and over is projected to proportionately grow by 50% from about 727 million in 2020 to more than 1.5 billion by 2050 [2] invariably implying that one in six people worldwide will be aged 65 years and over. Averagely, the number of older adults manifesting symptoms of mental disorders such as depression is set to increase proportionately among the estimated population. Good news however is that mental health issues in late life has been explored within different population of older adults globally.