Determinants of depression and insomnia among institutionalized elderly people in Malaysia

Abstract Depression and insomnia are common psychiatric disorders among elderly people and reported to be related to several social and health factors. However, their occurrences in relation to food intake have rarely been investigated. Therefore, this study was to identify determinants of depression and insomnia, with emphasised on food intake among 71 elderly people residing in a government funded institution in Malaysia. An interview based questionnaire was used to obtain information on socio-demography, health and functional status, depression, insomnia and food intake. A total of 71.8% subjects had depression and 53% had insomnia. Subjects who had insomnia [Adjusted Odds Ratio (AOR) 19.55, 95% CI = 4.04–94.64], needed help/unable to perform >4 items of IADL (AOR = 16.65, 95% CI = 3.95–70.22), had hypertension (AOR = 7.66, 95% CI = 1.37–42.76), had >50% wastage of poultry or fish (AOR = 3.66, 95% CI = 1.06–12.60) and wastage of vegetables (AOR 3.31, 95% CI = 1.03–10.60) were more likely to have depression. Subjects who had depression (AOR 19.55, 95% CI = 4.04–94.64), needed help/unable to perform >4 items of IADL (AOR 2.97, 95% CI = 1.12–7.84), needed help/unable to handle financial matters (AOR 5.01, 95% CI = 1.37–18.27) and had >50% wastage of vegetables (AOR 3.91, 95% CI = 1.42–10.82) were at a higher risk to develop insomnia. Depression and insomnia affected more than half of the subjects, interrelated, and associated with functional inability, socioeconomic factor and high food wastage of specific foods.