Determination of Depression, Anxiety and Stress among Retirees in Kogi State and Preventive Strategies (Published)
Retirees, especially in developing nations like Nigeria experience diverse health problems. Notable among them are depression, anxiety and stress. The present study aimed to determine the level of depression, anxiety, and stress among retirees, and formulated preventive strategies. The study was guided by four research questions and one null hypothesis. The survey research design was adopted for the study. A sample size of 1,250 respondents was drawn using multi- stage sampling procedure. Data were generated through researcher- structured questionnaires. The reliability was established through Cronbach Alpha statistic to determine the correlation coefficient index, which yielded 0 .97. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics of frequencies, percentages, and standard deviation. The study revealed that retirees experienced extremely severe level of depression (DASS) score=19.3, anxiety (DASS) score = 21.1 and stress (DASS) score = 17.3. It was therefore recommended that public health awareness and education campaigns of health problems on depression, anxiety and stress should be carried out by the National Orientation Kogi State Chapter, social welfare workers, counselors, educators, health educators, NGOs, and mass media to prevent and mitigate depression, anxiety and stress among retirees in Kogi State.
Keywords: Anxiety, Depression, Prevention, Retirees, Stress