Ruoling Chen¹, Li Wei², Zhi Hu³, Xia Qin³, John R M Copeland⁴, and Harry Hemingway¹. (1) Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, 1-19 Torrington Place, London, United Kingdom, 44-2071508165, ruoling.chen@westminster-pct.nhs.uk, (2) MEMO, University of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital, Dundee, United Kingdom, (3) Health adminstration, Anhui Medical University, Meishan Road 1, Hefei, China, (4) University of Liverpool Department of Psychiatry, Academic Unit,, Section of Old Age Psychiatry, St Catherine's Hospital, Birkenhead, Wirral, United Kingdom

Objective To determine the prevalence and risk factors for depression in older people in rural China. Design Cross-sectional household-based community survey. Setting 16 villages in Tangdian District of Yingshang County, Anhui Province, China. Subjects – 754 male peasants and 846 females aged > 60 years. Main outcome measures Depression was diagnosed by the Geriatric Mental State and Automated Geriatric Examination for Computer Assisted Taxonomy. Risk factors, collected from the standard questionnaire and physical measurement were examined in a multiple stepwise logistic regression model. Results 95 depressed cases were identified. World age-standardised prevalence was 6.0% (95%CI 4.8-7.3%). Depression was significantly and independently associated with female gender, low current family income, poor health status, lack of social network, relationship problems and adverse life events in the last two years. Multiple adjusted odds ratio of depression increased for those eating meat at twice per month (2.25, 1.20-4.18) compared to more consumption, for not watching television (1.76, 1.03-3.00) and for undetected hypertension (1.79, 1.06-3.02) compared to normtension. Conclusions Even in a deprived rural community, there is a lower risk of depression in elderly in China than western countries. The finding of “dose-response” relationship between socio-economic deprivation and depression suggests that strategies for tackling inequality in depression in elderly are urgently needed. Further exploration for Chinese culture and tradition may prevent depression in older people.

Learning Objectives:

At the conclusion of the session, the participant (learner) in this session will be able to
• Know a significant lower prevalence of depression in older people in rural China than in western countries.
• Identify different risk factors for depression in such a deprived rural community.
• Explore Chinese culture and tradition to get something about preventing depression in older people, which would be of benefit in both China and western countries

Keywords: Depression, Developing Countries

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.