Background: As per WHO guidelines, people age 60-70 are called elderly, between 75-80 years are called old and 85+ are called old-old. The individual gradually becomes dependent physically, functionally, socially and economically. Sadness or downswings in mood are normal reactions to life’s struggles, setbacks and disappointment’s. Many people use the word ‘Depression’ to explain these kinds of feelings, but depression is much more than just sadness. Some people describe depression as living in “black hole” or having a feeling of impending doom. Depression is a state of low mood and aversion to activity that can affect a person’s thoughts, behavior, feeling and sense of well-being. Depression reflects a range of biological and social factors and it may be difficult to diagnose in older people as its presentation may differ from that of younger people. Older people tend to under-report depressive symptoms and may not acknowledge being sad, down or depressed. Depression first develops in later life usually after 60 years and it more commonly associated with physical health problems that accompany aging. Depression is projected to become the leading contributor to the global burden of the disease by the year 2020. The community based mental health studies in India have estimated the prevalence of depressive disorder among elderly population between 13% and 25%. So, a descriptive study was conducted to assess the level of depression among the elderly residing in selected old age home at Jammu. Objectives: 1.To assess the level of depression among elderly residing at old age home. 2. To find the association of depression among the elderly residing at old age home with demographic variable. Materials and methods: The research approach used for this study was quantitative approach. The research design is non-experimental, univariant descriptive design. The study was conducted at selected oldage home in Jammu such as Amphalla 22Km away from BEE ENN College Nursing, Chak Bhalwal, Jammu. Purposive sampling method used to select the sample. Sample includes 40 males and females in the age group of 60-80 years from the old age home at Jammu. In the study data collection was done by standardized tool i.e, Geriatric Depression Scale. The data was analyzed in terms of the objectives of the study using descriptive and inferential statistics. Results: Findings showed that most of the subject’s i.e, 47.5% were mildly depressive, 30.0% had severe depression and remaining 22.5% were normal, with the mean depression score of 15.62 ± 6.331 (Range: 2-25). Chi-square test was used to find the association among various socio demographic variables with the depression score of study subjects. It was shown that the depression score was significantly associated with the age (p = 0.546), sex (p = 0.924), education (p = 0.844), marital status (p = 0.618), perceived health status (p = 0.133), reasons to join old age home (p = 0.105) and duration of stay in old age home (p = 0.298) at the p>0.05.
