Factors related to depressive symptoms in an elderly Chinese American sample

Assessed depressive symptomatology and its correlates in a sample of Chinese American elderly residing in a midwestern city. A structured questionnaire was developed for the project and administered to 45 Chinese Americans (aged 59-89 yrs). Measures of demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, life satisfaction, social support, health and functional status, occupational and economic status, depressive symptomatology, dementia, acculturation, as well as the command of the English language were included. Results show that in this community-dwelling sample of Ss, 20% had clinically significant depressive symptoms. Life satisfaction, social support, health status, functional status, number of years present in US, level of acculturation, and command of the English language were all found to be inversely related to depressive symptoms. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).