Depression among Senior Citizens Living with and Without Family

Pages: 65-68
Chandrakala Singh and Santosh Sangwan (Department of Human Development and Family Studies, COHS, CCSHAU, Hisar, Haryana)

The present study was carried out in Hisar district o f Haryana state with an objective to assess the depression among senior citizen. A total o f 100 elderly equally representing both living arrangements i.e. living alone and living with family, were selected randomly for the present study. Depression o f senior citizen was taken as dependent variable, whereas, level o f physical dependency, personal and socio-economic variables were considered as independent variables. Results related to the dependency status indicated that the marginal percentage o f elderly were totally dependent in both living arrangements. Further maximum percentage o f elderly living in family were dependent for heavy work as compare to the respondent living without family where, maximum percentage of respondent were independent. Data highlighted that higher percentage o f respondent living with family had mild level o f health, whereas, respondent living without family had different trend showing fifty percent had moderate level o f health status. Female respondents were having higher depression as compared to male counterpart.. Elderly who were living alone were having higher level o f depression as compared to elderly who were living with their family.