Introduction: Depression is one of the most common psychiatric disorders in old age. The aim of
the study was to investigate the relationship between social support and depression in elderly
population of Amirkola city, northern Iran. Also, a few studies have been conducted to determine
whether there is any association between social support and depression in different cultural
settings, e.g. in western countries.
Methodology: This cross sectional study came from the Amirkola Health and Ageing Project
(AHAP), that was undertaken among 1612 older people aged 60 years and over (881 males and
731 females) in Amirkola. The sampling method was done using the census records. Depression
was assessed via the shortened 15 item version of Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) and social
support measured by the shortened 11 item version of the Duke Social Support Index (DSSI).
Results: The prevalence of depressive symptoms was 43.4%. The mean social support score in
the subjects without depressive symptoms was 28.32±2.79 which has been significantly higher
than those with depressive symptoms 25.86±3.44. Linear regression analysis displays the
variables in the final model like social support, age, gender, education, living status; social support
was negatively the most associated variable with depression (ß for social satisfaction= -0.245,
P<0.001 and for social interaction 0 -0.199 P<0.001). Thus for the males, those who are younger,
those who are more educated, those who are married and those who are employed, their social
support scores were higher.
Conclusions: Lack of social support is negatively associated with depression in the elderly people
in Iran.