الفهرس 
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Abstract
SUMMARY
Aim of the study:
To detect the prevalence of depression and anxiety symptoms among older adult COVID-19 patients in Beni-Suef city.
Subjects and Methods:
The study was an analyticalcross-sectional study conducted on 384 older adults at Beni-Suef university hospital and elderly homes in Beni Suef city .
The study was undertaken using structured questionnaire was prepared in the Arabic language, the Arabic version of General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) to detect the prevelance of depression and anxiety symptoms among older adult COVID-19 patients.
This study revealed the following:
A high prevalence of anxiety symptoms (58.9%) and a low prevalence of depression symptoms (16.4%) was found among older adult COVID-19 patients.
The prevalence of distress or caseness in our studied participants was found to be 54.7%.
About 83% of the study participants were 60-70 years old, 58.3% were females and 53.4% were of urban residence. Only 16% of them were university graduates with insufficient income in 77% of them. Those living with their families constituted 65.4% and 70% reported to have co-morbidities and 62% of them reported to have mild to moderate COVID-19 infection.
The mean total score ofthe GHQ-28 for the four domains of the questionnaire was 6.89±4.97. The mean scores for the somatic and anxiety domains (2.42±1.69) and (2.42±2.06) were higher than the social dysfunction and severe depression domains (1.43±1.70) and (0.62±1.12), respectively.
There is a statistically significant difference for all sociodemographic items and general health status items except for residency. The prevalence of distress was higher among participants >70 years, females, with pre-university education or illiterate participants, being single with insufficient income, living in elderly home, with reported comorbidities and whom Covid-19 infection was severe.
Based on the previous findings we recommend the followings:
Presence of geriatric preventive health care programs to enhance and support older persons’ mental health
Appropriate health education programs for older individuals to help them understand the signs of depression and anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic and how to avoid these issues
Physical and mental support should be introduced by wife/ husband, family, friends and society.
The needs to be more focus on the mental health of older people, older women, older people with low levels of education, older people who live alone, and older people who have chronic illnesses.
It is important to create national strategic planning and management for psychological interventions after large disasters, including epidemiological screening, monitoring, counseling, and referral.