Depression and Treatment Adherence in Elderly Individuals with Chronic Disease

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of depression on treatment compliance in elderly individuals with chronic diseases. This descriptive and cross-sectional study was conducted with 120 elderly individuals with chronic diseases (hypertension, diabetes, heart diseases, thyroid diseases, etc.) who applied to the internal medicine outpatient clinic of Kırklareli Training and Research Hospital between March and June 2021. Research data were collected with a questionnaire about the descriptive characteristics of the participants, the Geriatric Depression Scale-15 (GDS) and the Modified Morisky Scale (MMS). The mean age of the patients was 73.76±5.86 years, 63.3% were female, 62.5% were primary school graduates and 49.2% were retired. 48.3% of them stated that they had sleep problems and 29.2% of them used drugs to help them sleep. According to the Geriatric Depression Scale, the depression rate was 38.3%. MMS scores of patients with depression were significantly lower. GDS scores of patients with low motivation and knowledge according to MMS were significantly higher. It was determined that the GDS scores of those who stated that they had sleep problems and who used sleep pills were significantly higher. In addition, those who used sleep pills had lower treatment compliance scores. The results of this study show that depression in elderly individuals with chronic diseases may impair treatment compliance, and those with low motivation and knowledge about treatment may also have depressive symptoms. In addition, it was found that sleep problems negatively affect depression and treatment compliance. Elderly individuals who experience non-compliance with treatment and sleep problems should be evaluated by healthcare professionals for the presence of depression.