Background
: It has been known that the prevalence of depression is increasing and depressive mood is accompanied with various physical symptoms in the elderly. In this research, we studied various physical symptoms of the elderly patients and how many of those symptoms were associated to depressive mood. We also investigated how much their doctors were concerned about depressive symptoms of the patients.

Methods : The subjects were 135 patients over 60 years old, who visited geriatric center and department of family medicine in a university hospital from December 2002 to May 2003. Individual interviews were conducted among the subjects and all symptoms who suffered from within a month from the time of interview, depression score, stress score, functional status and their sociodemographic factors were assessed. Finally, doctor's diagnosis or comments on depressive mood were assessed based on the medical documents of the elderly patients with depression.

Results : 56% of the subjects had depressive mood. Common symptoms of subjects were memory impairment, visual disturbance, fatigue, arthralgia, and thirsty sense. The more depressive mood the elderly have, the more physical symptoms they have. The physician paid their attention to depressive mood in 13% of the cases among the elderly with depressive mood. Depressive mood was affected by whom they lived together with, regular exercise and stress.

Conclusion : This study shows that most of the elderly patients had depressive mood and their common symptoms were associated to depressive mood. The stress and living together with their children were risk factors for depression of the elderly. However, depressive mood was less found among those patients who had spouse and who exercised regularly. Though physicians more likely recognize the depressive mood of the elderly as depression was severer, still little attention was paid to depressive mood in the elderly.

Background
: Individual propensity towards depressive mood has been influenced by various socio-demographic factors. Studies on the relationship between socio-demographic variables and degree of individual depressive mood in korea do not seem sufficient. In order to see the correlation of education level with the degree of depressive mood we surveyed to provide available data which are useful in the treatment of depression.

Methods : We randomly sampled 315 out of 452 patients based on the availability of chart record and questionnaire sheet. They were admitted to the department of family medicine in one university medical center in Seoul between Jan. 3. 1999 and Mar. 31. 2000. Out of 315 patients, we chose 271 patients between 30 and 80 years of age according to socio-demographic variables. Korean Beck Depression Index (BDI) questionnaire sheet method with 21 questions was use to collect the data for the degree of individual depression. The study group was subdivided into three (Group 1: group less educated than high school level, Group 2: group educated in high school, Group 3: group educated in college or above). BDI of each group was compared using ANOVA test.

Results : Age and sex among the three groups showed a significant difference. Other socio-demographic variables were not significantly different. The average of BDI was as follows: Group 1 BDI revealed significant difference among the groups according to education level. When Tukey method was applied to see the inter-group difference, Group 1 BDI was higher than Group 2 and Group 3 BDIs. No significant difference was found between Group 1 BDI was higher than Group 2 and Group 3 BDIs. No significant difference was found between Group 2 and Group 3.

Conclusion : People educated below high school level revealed more propensity towards depressive mood with a statistical significance. Such result implies that education leved be considered in the treatment of depressive patients.

Background
: It was known that physical illness and depression due to cognitive function defects increase in the elderly. This study was designed to evaluate the prevalence of depressive mood, associated factors and to help understanding recent trends of the depressive elderly.

Methods : We selected 108 subjects over 65-year-old who visited Health Promotion Center, Pundang CHA General Hospital for geriatric health evaluation from Mar. 1996 to Feb. 1997. We analyzed Geriatric Evaluation Record to know the effect of sociodemographic factors, life styles and geriatric medical factors by Geriatric Depression Scale(GDS).

Results : The result showed that depressive mood appeared 20(37.0%) in male, 35(64.8%) in female and 55(50.9%) in total among 108 subjects. Factors associated with deprssive mood of the elderly were occupation(p<0.05), regular exercise(p<0.001), nutritional status(p<0.05), functional status and alcohol drinking.

Conclusion : The prevalence of depressive mood of the elderly was 50.9%, and the depressive mood have been affected more for the elderly who was out of work, not doing regular exercises and got high nutritional risk. Further study is required to know other factors influencing on depressive mood of the elderly.