PATHWAY ANALYSIS OF THE INFLUENCE OF DEPRESSION ON QUALITY OF LIFE AND ITS IMPACT ON HYPERTENSION INCIDENCE IN ELDERLY IN PAYA PUNTEUT VILLAGE LHOKSEUMAWE

Abstract

Background: Health problems caused by physical and psychological changes due to aging cause elderly adults unable to enjoy their old age. One of them is hypertension which is caused by changes in the cardiovascular system of elderly, while depression may cause a further decline in their quality of life. Methods: This study used a cross-sectional approach with 247 hypertensive older adults as population and the 220 elderly adults as sample which were taken by purposive sampling technique. The endogenous variable in the study was hypertension. The exogenous variable was depression, measured by Geriatric Depression Scale-15 (GDS-15) questionnaire. The intervening variable was Quality of Life (QOL) of the elderly, measured by the WHOQOL BREF questionnaire. The data collected analyzed by SPSS software for Pearson correlation and path analysis. Results: Age, gender and marital status had a significant impact on depression experienced by the elderly, with significance values of 0.000; 0.001; and 0.000. The depression has a significant impact on the QOL and the incidence of hypertension with probability values of 0.000 and 0.003, respectively. The Quality of Life has a significant impact on hypertension as well with a probability value of 0.001. Conclusions: The findings in path analysis revealed the indirect effect of depression on hypertension through QOL is greater (0.203) than the direct effect of depression on hypertension (0.154). It means depression exacerbated by quality of life detrimental on ageing adults may elevate risk of hypertension. Recommendation: The findings are used to develop a modified model on managing hypertensive elderly in Lhokseumawe, Aceh by suppressing the rate of depressive symptoms through improving the quality of life.