Centre for Policy on Ageing



Community study of depression in old age in Taiwan — prevalence, life events and socio-demographic correlates
Author(s)	M-Y Chong, C-C Chen, H-Y Tsang
Journal title	The British Journal of Psychiatry, vol 178, January 2001
Pages	pp 29-35
Keywords	Depression ; Social characteristics [elderly] ; Living in the community ; Taiwan.
Annotation	The Taiwan Old-Age Depression Study (TOADS) of some 1,500 over 65s from three communities used the Geriatric Mental State Schedule (GMS), and the GMS-AGECAT (Automated Geriatric Examination for Computerised Assisted Taxonomy) for diagnosing depression. Data on life events were collected with the Taiwanese version of the Life Events and Difficulties Schedule (LEDS). One month prevalence of psychiatric disorders was 37.7%, with 15.3% depressive neurosis and 5.9% major depression. A high risk of depressive disorders was found among widows with a low educational level living in urban communities, and among those with physical illnesses. Contrary to most previous reports, the researchers found the prevalence of depressive disorders among older people in Taiwan to be high, and comparable to rates reported in some studies of UK samples. (RH).
Accession Number	CPA-010220203 A
Classmark	ENR: F: K4: 7DP
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...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.