Prevalence of mental disorders among older people in Nepal: a systematic review

Background: There has been limited research into the prevalence of mental disorders amongst older adults in developing countries. Developing countries such as Nepal are undergoing significant demographic changes with an increasing number and proportion of older persons.

Objective: This systematic review reports the prevalence of mental health disorders amongst the elderly in Nepal.

Method: Databases searched were PubMed, CINAHL, Scopus and PsycINFO. A hand search for relevant articles appearing in reference lists and previously identified research was also undertaken.

Result: Of the 26 studies (32 articles) included most were community and aged-care home -based studies measuring depression. The prevalence of depressive symptom cases ranged from 25.5% to 60.6% in the community, 17.3% to 89.1% in aged-care facilities and 53.2% to 57.1% in hospital settings. The prevalence of depressive disorders in similar settings varied between 4.4% (in community) to 53.2% (in hospital). The prevalence of anxiety symptom cases ranged from 21.7% to 32.3%. Psychosis, alcohol dependence and dementia were other identified disorders amongst the elderly. Disordered symptom cases are more prevalent in aged-care facilities than in community settings and mental disorders are higher for hospital-based studies compared to community settings.

Conclusion: This review identified a higher prevalence of depression amongst the elderly in Nepal compared to studies conducted in developed countries. The high rates of reported prevalence among the elderly warrant the need to develop more effective public health and welfare approaches to prevent, treat and manage the mental disorders among this vulnerable population.