BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY:

Ageing is a fact of life which does not take place all of a sudden. It is fixed and definite for all individuals in the normal course of a life time and death is the end result of old age. Ageing is a problem with almost every family, involving strains and stresses in taking care of them. It has become an important socio-psychological problem in the community. But the commonest problems encountered in elderly are depression an cognitive impairment. The burden of depression will undoubtedly increase among the elderly. Most of the old age people are at the risk of Elderly depression with number of risk factors.Cognitive impairment in which a clinically significant deficit in cognition or memory exists, representing a significant change from a previous level of functioning.

These disorders constitute a large and growing public health problem.So there is a need of assessing the knowledge and attitude on care of elderly depression and cognitive impairment among adults residing in selected villages of Yellore rural PHC, Belgaum.

OBJECTIVES:

The present study is aimed at assessing the knowledge and attitude on care of elderly depression and cognitive impairment among adults residing in selected villages of Yellor rural PHC, Belgaum.

The following Objectives are Formulated to Carry out the Study:

1 To assess the knowledge on care of elderly depression and cognitive impairment among adults as measured by structured interview schedule.

2 To determine the attitude on care of elderly depression and cognitive impairment among adults as measured by attitude scale.

3 To find out correlation between knowledge and attitude on care of elderly depression and cognitive impairment among adults.

4 To find out association between selected demographic variable and knowledge on care of elderly depression and cognitive impairment among adults .

5 To find out association between selected demographic variable and attitude on care of elderly depression and cognitive impairment among adults .

METHODS:

A descriptive design was used for the study. 200 residing in selected villages of Yellor rural PHC, Belgaum, were selected by using convenient sampling technique. Data collected by structured interview schedule and attitude scale towards on care of elderly depression and cognitive impairmentamong adults.

RESULTS:

I. Assessment of knowledge on care of elderly depression and cognitive impairment among adults.

The findings of the present study in rural community reveal that the mean percentage of total knowledge score was 51.3% with mean ±SD of 15.39±4.68. The findings of the study reveal that most (48.5%) of the samples had average knowledge, about 31% of them had good knowledge, and(20.5%) had poor knowledge on care of elderly depression and cognitive impairment among adults from selected villages of Yellore Rural PHC Belgaum.

KnowledgeScoreChart n =200

Level of knowledge	Range of percentage	Adults
Level of knowledge	Range of percentage	F	%
Poor	< 40	41	20.5
Average	41-60	97	48.5
Good	61-80	62	31
Very good	81-100	-	-

Knowledge Score Graph in Percentage

II. Assessment of attitude towards care of elderly depression and cognitive impairment among adults.

The findings of the present study in rural community reveal that the mean percentage of total attitude score was 66.19% with mean ±SD of 99.28±16.74. The findings of the study reveal that most (61.5%) of the samples had moderately-favourable attitude, and 33% of them had favourable attitude, and 5.5% had unfavorable attitude towards on care of elderly depression and cognitive impairment among adults .

Attitude Score Chart

Category	Range of percentage	Adult
Category	Range of percentage	F	%
Un-favourable	≤40	11	5.5
Mod-favourable	41 – 70	123	61.5
Favourable	≥ 71	66	33

Attitude Score Graph in Percentage

III.Findings of the present study revealed that there was positive correlation between knowledge and attitude among adults.

The findings present study reveals that there was significant association between the knowledge and selected demographic variables of adults like age, gender, education level, religion, occupation, family income, and source of information. The findings of adult revealed that there was significant association between the attitude and selected demographic variables such as age, marital status,education level, religion, occupation, family income, type of family, and source of information.

INTERPRETATION AND CONCLUSION:

The findings reveal that most of the samples in rural adults had average knowledge regarding on care of elderly depression and cognitive impairment. The findings reveal that most of the samples in rural adults had moderately favourable attitude towards on care of elderly depression and cognitive impairment .The findings of the study depict that there was positive correlation between knowledge and attitude on care of elderly depression and cognitive impairment among adults. Therefore the study concludes that the adults have an average knowledge and moderately favourable attitude on care of elderly depression and cognitive impairment. Thus the overall findings of the study depicts that there is a direct need to enhance the level of knowledge among individuals, family and community on care of elderly depression and cognitive impairment.

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Received on 11.09.2016 Modified on 06.01.2017

Int. J. Nur. Edu. and Research. 2017; 5(1): 99-101.

DOI: 10.5958/2454-2660.2017.00021.7