This research investigated the prevalence of depression among the elderly Chinese in Canada. The respondents totalled 96 randomly selected elderly Chinese living in Calgary. A 15-item Chinese version of the Geriatric Depression Scale was used as the depression measure. Results show that among the respondents, 9.4 per cent were mildly depressed and 11.5 per cent were moderately to severely depressed. The overall prevalence rate of depression in the elderly Chinese is higher than that of the general elderly population in Canada, but lower than that of the elderly Chinese in the United States. Findings from regression analysis show that having more illnesses, having lived in Canada longer, not knowing English, being younger in age, and having poor physical health are the significant predictors of depression in the elderly Chinese. The results indicate the mental health needs of this group of ethnic elderly. Other research and practice implications of the findings are also discussed in the paper.

The study was conducted to provide reference values of anthropometry and dietary intakes of elderly Chinese aged ≥ 70 years and to investigate differences between urban and rural groups. A total of 441 subjects comprising 260 urban elderly (126 men and 134 women) and 181 rural elderly (83 men and 98 women) participated in the anthropometric study. One hundred subjects (50 men and 50 women) from both urban and rural locations were selected randomly from the anthropometric cohort for dietary survey using the method of diet recall. For both men and women, the urban elderly had significantly higher intakes of protein, fat, calcium, iron, retinol, thiamin, riboflavin and nicotinic acid than did the rural elderly. Significant sexual differences were also observed: men had higher intakes of total energy and three macronutrients than women. Both regional and sexual differences in anthropometry (but not blood pressure) seemed to be consistent with the results of the dietary survey. Positive correlations were found between systolic blood pressure and the ratio waist:hip circumference for both men and women. As a marker of adipose tissue distribution, it seemed that this ratio was more predictive of high blood pressure than body-weight.