Korean J Fam Pract. 2018; 8(1): 159-162  https://doi.org/10.21215/kjfp.2018.8.1.159
The Effect of a Family Practitioner Counseling Visit on Depression of Elderly Residents in a Geriatric Care Facility
JaeWook Ko*
Department of Family Medicine, Osan Hankook Hospital, Osan, Korea
JaeWook Ko
Tel: +82-31-379-8300
E-mail: john9761@naver.com
ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9329-4778
Received: September 7, 2016; Revised: September 28, 2016; Accepted: October 28, 2016; Published online: February 20, 2018.
© The Korean Academy of Family Medicine. All rights reserved.

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0) which permits unrestricted noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
Background: The number of elderly individuals with depression has increased due to the rapid growth of the elderly population. It is widely known that depression in elderly residents is higher in geriatric care facilities compared to rates in the community. This study examined whether counseling visits provided by a family practitioner ameliorated depression in elderly residents in a geriatric care facility.
Methods: Elderly individuals in a geriatric facility in Gyeonggi-do were recruited from September 2015 to December 2015. The qualified 32 participants were divided into experimental and control groups, and only the experimental group underwent periodic counseling. The degrees of depression before and after the counseling visits were assessed using the Short-form Geriatric Depression Scale in Korean (SGDS-K) and statistically analyzed.
Results: The SGDS-K scores before counseling (8 and above) indicated that all participants in both groups were diagnosed with depressed. Their SGDS-K score was positively correlated with their age (β=0.879, P=0.000). In comparisons between the experimental and control groups before and after counseling visits, only the experimental group exhibited a significant difference (P=0.000).
Conclusion: Taken together, the results showed that counseling visits by a family practitioner relieved the symptoms of geriatric depression. The present study highlights the effect of periodic counseling visits provided by a family practitioner.
Keywords: Population Aging; Geriatric Depression; Depression Counseling
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