IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v13y2016i7p738-d74435.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Geographic Elevation, Car Driving, and Depression among Elderly Residents in Rural Areas: The Shimane CoHRE Study

Author

Listed:
  • Tsuyoshi Hamano

    (Institute of General Education, Kyoto Sangyo University, Motoyama, Kamigamo, Kita-ku, Kyoto 603-8555, Japan
    Department of Functional Pathology, School of Medicine, Shimane University, 89-1 Enya-cho, Izumo, Shimane 693-8501, Japan)

  • Miwako Takeda

    (Center for Community-Based Health Research and Education (CoHRE), Organization for the Promotion of Project Research, Shimane University, 223-8 Enya-cho, Izumo, Shimane 693-8501, Japan)

  • Kristina Sundquist

    (Center for Primary Health Care Research, Lund University, Clinical Research Centre (CRC), Building 28, floor 11, Jan Waldenströms Gata 35, Skåne University Hospital, Malmö SE-205 02, Sweden
    Stanford Prevention Research Center, Stanford University, Medical School Office Building (MSOB), 251 Campus Drive MC 5411, Stanford, CA 94305, USA)

  • Toru Nabika

    (Department of Functional Pathology, School of Medicine, Shimane University, 89-1 Enya-cho, Izumo, Shimane 693-8501, Japan
    Center for Community-Based Health Research and Education (CoHRE), Organization for the Promotion of Project Research, Shimane University, 223-8 Enya-cho, Izumo, Shimane 693-8501, Japan)

Abstract

Given that public transportation networks are often worse in rural areas than in urban areas, it is difficult for elderly non-drivers to access health-promoting goods, services, and resources related to mental health. Moreover, geographical location, assessed by elevation, could modify this association in a rural area. The aim of this study was to test whether the association between car driving (being a driver or not) and depression, as measured by the Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS), varied by elevation. Data were collected from a cross-sectional study conducted in the town of Ohnan located in a rural area of Japan. After excluding participants with missing data ( n = 26), 876 participants were analysed in this study. After adjustment for potential confounders, being a non-driver had a significantly higher odds ratio of SDS (40+) among elderly people living at a low elevation (odds ratio = 2.17, 95% confidence interval = 1.28–3.71). However, similar findings were not observed among elderly people living at a high elevation. These results suggest that car driving importantly predicts depression in elderly people living at relatively low elevations in rural areas.

Suggested Citation

  • Tsuyoshi Hamano & Miwako Takeda & Kristina Sundquist & Toru Nabika, 2016. "Geographic Elevation, Car Driving, and Depression among Elderly Residents in Rural Areas: The Shimane CoHRE Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-6, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:13:y:2016:i:7:p:738-:d:74435
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/13/7/738/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/13/7/738/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Rie Fukuoka & Miwako Takeda & Takafumi Abe & Masayuki Yamasaki & Shinji Kimura & Kenta Okuyama & Minoru Isomura & Toru Nabika, 2021. "Inconvenience of Living Place Affects Individual HbA1c Level in a Rural Area in Japan: Shimane CoHRE Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(3), pages 1-9, January.
    2. Tsuyoshi Hamano & Takafumi Abe & Ryo Miyazaki & Kenta Okuyama & Kristina Sundquist & Toru Nabika, 2021. "Car Driving Status and Living Arrangement Associated with Sarcopenia among Rural Japanese Older Adults: A Cross-Sectional Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(1), pages 1-7, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:13:y:2016:i:7:p:738-:d:74435. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.