Effectiveness of multimodal intervention for depression, self-esteem, and quality of life among elderly people residing at selected old age homes in Jalandhar, Punjab

BACKGROUND: Depression is the most common mental disorder among old age people residing at old age homes. It is also associated with many physiological and psychological symptoms along with the impaired quality of life and self-esteem. The multimodal intervention, including physical activity, cognitive training, and social activities, has a positive effect on depression and self-esteem. However, only a few studies were conducted in India setup on the older population residing at old age homes. Hence, this study focused on finding the effectiveness of multimodal intervention for depression, quality of life, and self-esteem among elderly people residing at selected old age homes in Jalandhar, Punjab. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A randomized, controlled trial design was adopted with longitudinal measurement of outcomes for 6 months. An simple random sampling technique was used to recruit 50 subjects to the experimental group and 50 subjects to the control group. Elderly people who are residing at selected old age homes in Jalandhar were selected for the study. The multimodal intervention was administered to the experimental group once weekly eight sessions over eight weeks after the pre-interventional assessment. The data were collected pre-intervention, at one month, three months, and six months after the intervention. The data were analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 23.0. RESULTS: There were no significant differences in demographics between groups at baseline. The mean age of subjects was 64.35 ± 1.32 years in the experimental group and 64.12 ± 1.83 in the control group. The mean duration of stay in old age home was 3.64 ± 1.25 years in the experimental group and 4.05 ± 1.65 in the control group. There were significant multimodal intervention effects on decreasing depression (F = 20.15, P < 0.05, n(p)(2)= 0.092) and increasing self-esteem (F = 84.65, P < 0.001, n(p)(2)= 0.24) and quality of life (F = 62.32, P < 0.001, n(p)(2)= 0.52) over the 6-month interval. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrated that the multimodal intervention was effective in reducing depression among elderly people residing at selected old age homes. It also shows that self-esteem and quality of life improved significantly after intervention.