TY - JOUR
T1 - Geriatric Depressive Symptoms in Myanmar
T2 - Incidence and Associated Factors
AU - Yamada, Hiroyuki
AU - Yoshikawa, Kanako
AU - Matsushima, Midori
N1 - Funding Information:
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3709-1914 Yamada Hiroyuki 1 Yoshikawa Kanako 2 Matsushima Midori 3 1 Keio University, Tokyo, Japan 2 Osaka University, Japan 3 University of Tsukuba, Japan Hiroyuki Yamada, Professor, Faculty of Economics, Graduate School of Economics, Keio University, 2-15-45 Mita, Minato-ku, Tokyo 108-8345, Japan. Email: hyamada@econ.keio.ac.jp 10 2019 0733464819879605 26 4 2019 3 9 2019 4 9 2019 © The Author(s) 2019 2019 Southern Gerontological Society Myanmar is one of many countries currently facing a growing older adult population; yet, the mental health status of the country’s older adults is understudied. This is the first article to investigate the prevalence of geriatric depressive symptoms and its associated factors in Myanmar. We use data from the most recent large-scale older adult survey conducted in 2016, which employed the four-item short version of the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-4). Descriptive statistics reveal that, depending on the threshold applied, about 16% to 56% of the surveyed older adults have indications of depressive symptoms. We find that both economic and health status have a statistically significant association with depressive symptoms, but no basic individual characteristics are associated with it. Our findings suggest the importance of a social security system for older adults. Expanding the scope of the pension scheme and improving the provision of health care may be among the important policy options. geriatric depressive symptoms Myanmar economics status health status osaka university https://doi.org/10.13039/501100004206 edited-state corrected-proof We gratefully appreciate Mr. Godfred Paul and Dr. Anil Kumar Indira Krishna, HelpAge International, Myanmar country office, for permitting us to utilize data from the Survey on Accessing Healthcare to Older Persons in Myanmar for the present study. Authors’ Note The information and views set out in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official opinion of the authors’ current affiliations. Declaration of Conflicting Interests The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. Funding The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by the Osaka University of Commerce (the Institute of Regional Studies Research Fund, Fiscal Year 2018-2019). Data Availability Statement The data that support the findings of this study are available from HelpAge International. Restrictions apply to the availability of these data, which were used under license for this study. Data are available from the authors with the permission of HelpAge International. ORCID iD Hiroyuki Yamada https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3709-1914
Funding Information:
We gratefully appreciate Mr. Godfred Paul and Dr. Anil Kumar Indira Krishna, HelpAge International, Myanmar country office, for permitting us to utilize data from the Survey on Accessing Healthcare to Older Persons in Myanmar for the present study. The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by the Osaka University of Commerce (the Institute of Regional Studies Research Fund, Fiscal Year 2018-2019).
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2019.
PY - 2020/11/1
Y1 - 2020/11/1
N2 - Myanmar is one of many countries currently facing a growing older adult population; yet, the mental health status of the country’s older adults is understudied. This is the first article to investigate the prevalence of geriatric depressive symptoms and its associated factors in Myanmar. We use data from the most recent large-scale older adult survey conducted in 2016, which employed the four-item short version of the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-4). Descriptive statistics reveal that, depending on the threshold applied, about 16% to 56% of the surveyed older adults have indications of depressive symptoms. We find that both economic and health status have a statistically significant association with depressive symptoms, but no basic individual characteristics are associated with it. Our findings suggest the importance of a social security system for older adults. Expanding the scope of the pension scheme and improving the provision of health care may be among the important policy options.
AB - Myanmar is one of many countries currently facing a growing older adult population; yet, the mental health status of the country’s older adults is understudied. This is the first article to investigate the prevalence of geriatric depressive symptoms and its associated factors in Myanmar. We use data from the most recent large-scale older adult survey conducted in 2016, which employed the four-item short version of the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-4). Descriptive statistics reveal that, depending on the threshold applied, about 16% to 56% of the surveyed older adults have indications of depressive symptoms. We find that both economic and health status have a statistically significant association with depressive symptoms, but no basic individual characteristics are associated with it. Our findings suggest the importance of a social security system for older adults. Expanding the scope of the pension scheme and improving the provision of health care may be among the important policy options.
KW - Myanmar
KW - economics status
KW - geriatric depressive symptoms
KW - health status
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85074368693&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85074368693&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/0733464819879605
DO - 10.1177/0733464819879605
M3 - Article
C2 - 31609164
AN - SCOPUS:85074368693
SN - 0733-4648
VL - 39
SP - 1230
EP - 1239
JO - Journal of Applied Gerontology
JF - Journal of Applied Gerontology
IS - 11
ER -
