Depression and Anxiety Analysis from Elder Population in A Beijing Rural Area

The paper aims to investigate the mental health status of elderly people in Beijing rural area, and look for possible factors that affect the depression and anxiety levels. 204 ordinary elderly residents over 60 years old without major diseases are randomly selected from a rural area of Beijing. The factors influencing the level of depression and anxiety of the sample are investigated by the Daily Living Ability Scale , the Marital Attachment Questionnaire and the Social Support Rating Scale. Our results show that the degree of depression is influenced by 12 factors (including age , marriage, education, monthly income, source of income, type of health care, daily living ability, number of chronic diseases, couple attachment , parent-child contact, social support and frequency of Internet use), among which the top three most significant factors are social support , marriage and couple attachment. The degree of anxiety is generally influenced by 10 factors (age , marriage, education, monthly income, source of income, daily living ability, number of chronic diseases, couple attachment , social support and frequency of Internet use), among which the top three most significant factors are the number of chronic diseases, age and daily living ability. Our results indicate that the depression level is affected by the relationship between oneself and other people; while the anxiety degree is mainly affected by the basic daily life and relationship between oneself. Our research results suggest that, the society shall focus on especially the vulnerable elderly groups with poor daily living ability and many chronic diseases, and efforts should be made to optimize primary medical care services for the aged population; family and society emotional support for the elderly should be strengthened to relieve the depression level.