Thèse de Heba MOHSEN

Depression and its correlates among Lebanese elderly residents in living care centers

Moving to a nursing home involves a series of changes that can have adverse effects on elderlies. Residents become disconnected from symbols of their identity, social networks, routines, and belongings. Changing their environment and circle of relations could lead to psychiatric disorders such as anxiety and depression. It is important to screen for depression using the right tool because it often goes undetected and it tends to worsen with time when risk factors are present. Elderly people experience frailty and pain with age, dementia, insomnia, and anxiety.

These health conditions could lead to the development or to the worsening of depression. Thus, it is vital to study the prevalence of depression and examine the factors complicating it in order to offer elderlies a better quality of life.

The primary aim of this study is to evaluate the psychometric properties of a screening tool used specifically to measure depression in elderlies residing at nursing homes. The tool Nursing Homes Short Depression Inventory (NH-SDI) was developed and validated in France (Prado-Jean et al., 2011) and it is widely used among French nursing homes. NH-SDI will be validated among the Lebanese population in order to be used by nursing homes for quick assessment of depression. Other aims are to determine the risk factors (sociodemographic, clinical profile, frailty, pain, anxiety, quality of life, insomnia, dementia,..etc) that might be associated with depression. These factors will be assessed through validated questionnaires. Additionally, the study will investigate the mediators and moderators which impact the associations between these factors and depression.

Mots clés : Depression, Elderly people, Lebanon.