About Staff

We have been studying depression in older people living in Southeast Asian countries and Japan. Depression is not only a major threat to the mental health and well-being of the elderly but also a matter of concern to any caregiver treating such patients and their families. Although depression is expected to be the second-leading cause of disability worldwide by 2020, reports of prevalence of depression in Southeast Asian countries are still very few. One of the reasons is that reliable screening methods have not been established in those areas. We have reported that depression is associated with disability and lower quality of life among community-dwelling older people in Vietnam, Indonesia, and Japan. However, the effect of traditional lifestyles or religion on depression is not clear. We would like to develop a screening tool for depression and to clarify how lifestyle and spirituality are associated with depression in Southeast Asian countries. Treatable depression should be effectively detected and treated as there is no health without mental health.