Prevalence and Associated Factors of Depressive Symptoms among Older Adults in the Philippines.

Background: Depressive symptoms may increase with age, potentially influenced by sociodemographic characteristics, stressors and support, health status, and health behaviour. It is unclear if this is the case among older adults in the Philippines. Therefore, the aim of this study is to estimate the prevalence and associated factors of depressive symptoms among older adults in the Philippines.

Methods: In all, 5209 items of cross-sectional nationally representative data from older adults (≥60 years) participating in the 2018 Longitudinal Study on Ageing and Health in the Philippines (LSAHP) were analysed. Depressive symptoms were assessed using the 11-item 3-response category Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression (CES-D) Scale.

Results: The overall prevalence of depressive symptoms was 32.1%, with 25.6% among older men and 36.5% among older women. In the final adjusted models, overall, widowed (Adjusted Odds Ratio (AOR): 1.52, 95% Confidence Interval (CI): 1.00 to 2.30), hunger (AOR: 2.22, 95% CI: 1.40 to 3.51), living alone (AOR: 1.61, 95% CI: 1.00 to 2.59), not satisfied with present life (AOR: 2.04, 95% CI: 1.09 to 3.81), body pain (AOR: 2.39, 95% CI: 1.73 to 3.31), and insomnia (AOR: 1.69, 95% CI: 1.24 to 2.31) were positively associated, while working (AOR: 0.55, 95% CI: 0.37 to 0.80) was negatively associated with depressive symptoms. In addition, among men, older age (80 years and above) (AOR: 1.95, 95% CI: 1.06 to 3.58), unmet healthcare needs (AOR: 2.19, 95% CI: 1.07 to 4.47), and hearing difficulty (AOR: 2.41, 95% CI: 1.06 to 5.52) were positively associated poor childhood health (AOR: 0.12, 95% CI: 0.04 to 0.36), while social network (AOR: 0.94, 95% CI: 0.90 to 0.99) was negatively associated. Among women, loss of bladder control (AOR: 1.69, 95% CI: 1.03 to 2.77) was positively associated with depressive symptoms.

Conclusion: One in three older adults participating in this study exhibited depressive symptoms. Sociodemographic factors, stressors, and health status factors were positively associated, and support factors were negatively associated with depressive symptoms.