Demographic factors in stress, anxiety and depression of older women

Pages: 282-287
Narendra Singh Thagunna (The School of Psychology Nepal, Kathmandu, Nepal, & Padma Kanaya Multiple Campus, Tribhuwan University, Nepal)
Khem Raj Bhatta ( Central Department of Psychology Tribhuwan University, Nepal)
Pabitra Adhikari (Ageing Nepal, Kathmandu, Nepal)

United Nations considers the older person as the ones who are 60 or 65 in age. The Senior Citizen Act of Nepal considers old age (senior citizen) age 60 and above. Old age is a challenging age for both men and women even and older women experience more challenges than men at this stage. Due to various reasons, older women are more likely to experience negative psychological states like stress, anxiety, and depression. This study thus explored, stress, anxiety, and depression among older women and tried to predict these from demographic variables. One hundred and five older women (aged 60 or above) from two organizations of Kathmandu were selected through purposive sampling method. Anxiety, Depression, and Stress Scale (Singh, Pandey, Sandhya, & Amitabh, 2011) translated in Nepali, was used to explore these variables. The demographic data collection sheet included a personal source of income, education, age, occupation, and marital status of the participants. Data was coded in MicrosoftExcel and was imported to Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 21 for analysis. The analysis included a t-test, one way ANOVA, and multiple linear regression. Results showed that 32.4% of older women had high stress and 70.4% reported high anxiety. Similarly, 62.8% had high depression. Rate of stress, anxiety, and depression was high for illiterate, married, housewives, and those who did not have a personal source of income. There was a significant difference in stress, anxiety, and depression for education, income, occupational status. The result of multiple linear regression showed that demographic variables attributed to 16.5% variation in stress, 24.6% variation in anxiety, and 27% variation in depression.