Study of Relationship between Health, Integrity and Depression in the Elderly Population: A Salutogenic Approach

Background: The salutogenesis is very relevant concept in today’s era when we are shifting focus from tertiary to primordial prevention where it can show us a way to remain healthy and act as a concept of pre-primordial prevention.These apparent links between the sense of coherence which defines the integrity of an individual, depression which is a consequence of changed demands of life and its implications on the health of an individual will provide a conceptual framework to this study. Subjects and Methods: This is a cross sectional community based study done on above 60 years of age from an urban area which is a field practice area of the institution taken as study group A and elderly residing in the old age homes of the city taken as study group B. They were explained about the details of filling the questionnaires in advance and their identity were kept confidential and the participation was voluntary.Orientation to life questionnaire i.e. OLQ-13 version was used to estimate sense of coherence scores of the individual.GDS or geriatric depression scale is an appropriate questionnaire used for measuring the depressional status of an elderly person in their respective life stressful conditions.Results: Our study showed that the 61.7%oftotalpopulationofstudygroupAweremalesand38.33%werefemales.15%ofthetotalelderlyofstudygroupAhavehighsoc,84.17%havemediumsocand1%have lowsoc.13.33% of the elderly in study group B have high SOC whereas 87% have medium SOC.Conclusion: We concluded that SOC and BMI are directly proportional to each other; GDS and education were in direct correlation to each other; SOC was found to be directly proportional to the educational status of theperson.