Psychiatric Morbidity and Psychosocial Challenges among the Elderly attending a General Out-Patient Facility of A tertiary Hospital in Nigeria

Abstract

Old age comes with worries and limitations. Although psychiatric disorders have been documented, few studies have related their self-assessed ruminations and worries in association with psychological morbidity and relevant socio-demographic factors. The study was a descriptive cross sectional study. Two hundred and six participants were recruited for the study.  Participants were recruited from patients aged 60 and above presenting at the General Out-patient clinic of Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital Sagamu, a major city in southwestern part of Nigeria over a period of six months. Interviews were done using Patient Health Questionnaire. More than half (57.8%) of the participants met the criteria for psychological morbidity. There was significant association between age and depression (X²=6.516, p=0.011). Females significantly had more psychopathology (X²=8.719, p=0.003), depression (X²=6.357, p=0.012) and somatization disorder (X²=10.624, p= 0.001) than the males while the males significantly had more generalized anxiety disorder (X²=17.524, p=0.000) than the females. Significant associations were seen between psychopathology and worries about health (X²=36.603, p=0.000), no one to turn to (X²=7.67, p=0.00) and about stressful things in life (X²=29.12, p=0.000). The study revealed that there was high prevalence of psychological morbidity and was associated with specific worries among the elderly. Physicians caring for the elderly, should explore personal worries and pay attention to psychological morbidity among the elderly.

Keywords: Psychiatric morbidity, old age, psychosocial challenges