PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of social capital on depression of the elderly living in rural areas.
METHODS: Data sets were obtained from the 2019 Korea Community Health Survey. The subjects were 39,390 elderly people aged over 65 years old living in rural areas. Indicators of social capital included trust, reciprocity, network, and social participation. The dependent variable or depression was measured using the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9). After adjusting the numbers of data to 102,601 by applying Synthetic Minority Oversampling Technique (SMOTE), hierarchical ordinal logistic regression was conducted to identify factors associated with depression.
RESULTS: The independent variable, trust, reciprocity, network, and social participation, exhibited a statistically significant association with the depression of the elderly. The odds ratios of the depression were higher in groups without social capital variables.
CONCLUSION: To reduce depression, we recommend to increase the social capital. Factors identified in this study need to be considered in the elderly depression intervention programs and policies.