Influence of institutionalisation and social support on depression among old aged people

Depression is getting more and more prominent in elderly population. The purpose of the study is to understand the influence of institutionalisation and social support with depression among old aged people and to understand the predictive nature of individuals social support and institutionalisation on depression. A sample size of 120 old aged people of age ranging from 65 to 80 years from old age care facilities from Irinjalakuda municipality. Equal number of non-institutionalised and institutionalised individuals were considered. Multidimensional scale for perceived social support and The Beck Depression Inventory was used to measure depression and social support of the sample population. The research concluded that there exists a moderately strong relation between depression and social support, and there lies a significant difference of depression among non-institutionalisation and institutionalisation old aged people. It’s also revealed that social support is a much stronger predictor of depression than institutionalisation. In the changing world society should focus more on providing social support for elderly people than disputing about the effect of institutionalisation.