Validating the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) for Use among Older Adults in Nepal

Sujan Shrestha, University of Florida

Global population aging has led to new research activities throughout the world. There are many countries, including Nepal, for which only limited health and aging data are available. We know much less about mental health and don't have equivalent measures for research in Nepal. Mental health problems are underdetected in Nepal, therefore we know even less about mental health status of the elderly. The purpose of this study is to (1) to evaluate the validity of measures of depression (CES-D) scale and (2) to describe overall mental health status of a sample of older Nepalese. Specifically, we examine data from the Chitwan Valley Family Study of Nepal. The mean number of depressive symptoms reported among the elderly was 5.0. Men (5.1) report slightly higher mean number of depressive symptoms than the women (4.8), but this is not a statistically significant difference. Young old and old old report the same number of depressive symptoms on average (5.0).