Article
The Prevalence of Depression among Older, African American Women
International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Review
(2020)
Abstract
This study explores the prevalence of depression among older African American women as
depression has been targeted as a major health problem among older African American women.
According to the DSM-5 diagnostic system, depression is defined as a disturbance in mood,
characterized by sadness, and is associated with other psychological and physical symptoms that
adversely affect a person’s functioning at work, at home and in social contexts. Although
controversy surrounds the classification and the reported prevalence of late life depression, most
of older female adults in community surveys, report depressive symptoms. Due to the magnitude
of the problem, gerontological practitioners must increase their endeavors to explicate the
phenomenon of depression. Greater focus needs to be placed on theory development and research
related activities to increase knowledge of depression and interventions. To date, little research
has been conducted on depression among older African American women. It is important to
explore depression in older women for several reasons. First, the higher prevalence rate of
depression among older women, relative to older men, needs to be adequately explained. Second,
demographic information reveals that older women comprise much of the senior population in
Western countries, and this trend is expected to continue. Finally, given that the preponderance
of research on late life depression has been carried out with both sexes, existing research has
neglected to investigate gender-related influences as a potential source of depression among
older women. The implications of the findings for practice, policy, and research are also
explored.
Keywords
- depression,
- elderly,
- treatment,
- women,
- health,
- research
Disciplines
Publication Date
Summer July, 2020
Citation Information
Jackson De Carvalho and Tamika Baldwin-Clark. "The Prevalence of Depression among Older, African American Women" International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Review Vol. 6 Iss. 2 (2020) p. 1 - 10 ISSN: 2415-1157 Available at: http://works.bepress.com/tamika-baldwin-clark/7/