An Empirical Study of Social Support among Depressive and Non-Depressive Elderly People

It has been documented that elderly are more prone to psychological problems and depression is the commonest geriatric psychiatric disorders. In fact the elderly in India face a multitude of psychological, social and physical health problems. In a cross-sectional study, it was found that in persons 65 years and older, the perceived adequacy of emotional and tangible support was clearly associated with depressive symptoms.  Aim and Objective: This study intends to see the relationship between depression and social support among depressive and non-depressive elderly. Samples and Methods: This study comprised of 60 (30 with depression and 30 without depression) participants of age 60 or above. The sample was selected with purposive incidental sampling technique. Material used: GDS-30 and PGI- SSQ were administered after taking consent. Results and conclusion: Result shows the comparison of means between depressive (case-group) and non-depressive (control-group) as per the scores on Social Support Questionnaire (SSQ). The mean score (40.53) of depressive group was lesser than that of non-depressive group (50.30). The t-value (20.373) was found to be statistically significant at 0.01. (p-value 0.000). Conclusion: In brief, the findings of the study show that depressed people perceive lack of social support than non-depressed elderly people. It has been observed that social support is a protective factor from depression in elderly people.