Psychiatric Morbidity and Quality of Life in Old Adult Psychiatric Outpatients Attending a Tertiary Care Center: A Cross-sectional Study

Psychiatric Morbidity and Quality of Life in Old Adult Psychiatric Outpatients Attending a Tertiary Care Center: A Cross-sectional Study

Objectives: Mental health problems such as cognitive impairment, depression, anxiety, and sleep disorders arising from senility, neurosis, and living conditions are common in the geriatric population. In this study, we intended to estimate the proportion and pattern of psychiatric morbidities in the elderly, to determine the association between sociodemographic variables, and to assess the quality of life (QoL) in the elderly. Methods: Totally 140 patients attending a tertiary center were clinically evaluated using Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview Plus (MINI-Plus) 7.0.2 for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (MINI-Plus), the World Health Organization- QoL BREF Scale, and Hindi Mental State Examination. Results: The majority of the sample belonged to the age group 65–70 years, dominated by females coming from a rural background, and 56.4% had an illness of more than a year. The age at the onset was found to be between 51 and 64 years in 43.6% of patients. Depression (27.9%) was found to be the most prevalent disorder, followed by psychotic disorders (26.4%). Of the four domains, QoL was significantly worse in the domains of social relationship (p < 0.01) and environmental (p < 0.01). Conclusion: Mood disorder, specifically depression (27.9%), was found to be the most prevalent psychiatric morbidity, and QoL was poorer in the social relation and environmental domains in the elderly. We suggest that we need to pay attention to those study findings and treat those patients adequately.