Introduction
The purpose of this paper is to identify what factors of life quality influence depression severity in patients suffering from neurodegenerative diseases. In order to meet this aim, it is necessary to answer the following research questions:
1. Does depression lower the quality of life of the patients?
2. What factors influence depression severity particularly in elderly patients?
3. What factors are not associated with depression severity in elderly patients?
For this study the null hypothesis is that major indicators of life quality don’t influence depression in patients suffering from neurodegenerative diseases. This problem was chosen among all, as today it is topical and requires in-depth research so as to understand it in detail and find solution to the problems often faced by this category of patients. One of the steps for achievement of this goal is thorough research of the factors influencing this condition, and this paper will offer specific findings that will help realize this aim. This problem is topical, as it is a well-known fact that the world’s population is now ageing, which is why the number of people suffering from such problems is constantly on increase.
Neurodegenerative diseases pose major problems for the elderly, Alzheimer’s disease being one of the most severe and widespread of them. Such diseases often lead to both motor and non-motor functions disorders, depression being one of them. Depression has already been identified as one of the main factors influencing patients’ quality of life, which is why it is very important to research this condition and its consequences in detail. In future the results of the study can be used for further research of this problem and, in particular, to find a way of effective treatment of patients and increasing their quality of life.
Methodology
The data used in this research was obtained from the study conducted by Winter et al. (2011). This set of data was chosen, because it is one of the most recent studies in the field, which means that its results are present-day and reflect real situation in this sphere. It is possible to choose a better data source that would have contained larger sample, as in this particular case the number of people involved was limited – 98. On the other hand, for the study of this particular question this quantity is appropriate. For analyzing the data multiple regression analysis was used, as it is one of the most convenient ones for analyzing several factors so as to identify which of them are the most influential in terms of the depression severity.
Results
The age of participants was from 68.7 to 86.3, among them 65.3% were females. Over 90% of them were age retired and 44% were widowed. Over 84% had moderate cognitive impairment, 15.3% had severe cognitive deficits. Some 44% had certain behavioral disorders. Depressive symptoms were characteristic of 86.7% of the patients, among them 56% had moderate depression and 36% - severe as measured by the Geriatric Depression Scale.
It was discovered that quality of life of the patients was considerably decreased fir to the depressive symptoms. With the help of the multiple regression analysis (see Table 1) it was possible to identify that patients’ gender, age, marital status and MMSE were independent predictors of depression severity.
Together age, MMSE, marital status and gender explained 33.5% of scores variability on GDS. More severe depression was associated with male gender and older age, while employment status didn’t influence depression severity considerably. Married patients manifested lower severity of depression.
Conclusions
In the view of the results presented above, it is possible to reject the null hypothesis formulated in the introduction and state that factors associated with the quality of life influence severity of depression in patients suffering from vascular dementia or Alzheimer dementia. It is necessary to take them in consideration when deciding on the treatment of such patients and develop such a regime for them that will make their state better. In particular, it was discovered that the most influential factors leading to severe depression are age, gender and marital status, while employment is not so important in this issue.
References
Winter, Y., Korchounov, A., Zhukova, T.V., & Bertschi, N.E. (2011). Depression in elderly patients with Alzheimer dementia or vascular dementia and its influence on their quality of life. Journal of Neurosciences in Rural Practice, 2(1), 27-32
