ABSTRACT
Objective
To estimate the prevalence of depressive symptoms in Brazilian elderly people living in the community.
Methods
We searched the electronic databases Medline (PubMed), SciELO, Web of Science, Scopus and CINAHL, and also selected studies with Brazilian elderly people that identified the prevalence of depressive symptoms. Independently, two researchers selected the studies, extracted the data and assessed the methodological quality. The meta-analysis was performed to estimate the prevalence of depressive symptoms using a random effect model.
Results
We identified 176 articles and 33 were included in the review, which investigated 34 prevalences, with a total of 39,431 elderly people. The geographical distribution of the studies indicated researches in all regions of Brazil. The short version of the Geriatric Depression Scale was the most used. The estimated prevalence of depressive symptoms for Brazilian community-dwelling older adults was 21.0% (95% CI: 18.0-25.0, I2 = 98.3%). Subgroup analyzes revealed high heterogeneity in all categories analyzed. Meta-regression did not identify the causes of heterogeneity.
Conclusion
Despite the heterogeneity between the studies analyzed, the results indicate the need for intervention strategies to reduce the prevalence of depressive symptoms.
Depressive symptoms; systematic review; meta-analysis; aged; prevalence
