The Effect of Empowerment Interventions Applied to Geriatric Patients Receiving Physical Therapy on Their Depression and Self-Efficacy Levels

The extension of the human lifespan has led to an increase in the proportion of the elderly population worldwide. This situation has also brought the issue of healthy aging to the agenda. The importance of more active participation of elderly individuals in life in the development of health is increasing. Depression and self-efficacy of the elderly people are primarily addressed to support this situation. This study is a randomized controlled intervention study in which evaluating the change in depression and self-efficacy levels of elderly individuals after the empowerment intervention. In the study, which was conducted to improve elderly individuals' depression and self-efficacy levels, an empowerment intervention consisting of 7 sessions was applied to these individuals. In the sessions, practices were carried out to increase the functionality of the elderly in cognitive, social, emotional, physical and spiritual areas. In this study, 60 elderly individuals (intervention and control groups) who were hospitalized for physical therapy and rehabilitation in a state hospital in Turkey between September 2019 and December 2020 were included. The simple random sampling method was used for sampling. The sample size was determined by G Power analysis. Geriatric depression and self-efficacy scales were used in the study. The study data were analyzed on the IBM SPSS Statistics 25.0 software package. Descriptive statistics were used to calculate descriptive data. Pearson, Chi-Square, and Fisher Exact tests were used to compare the sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of the participants. Paired Samples t-test was used to compare the intervention and the control groups' pretest and posttest scores. In the study, it was determined that the mean geriatric depression pretest score was 15.43 ± 7.05 in the control group and 14.46 ± 7.21 in the intervention group, and there was no significant difference between the groups' geriatric depression pretest scores (p = .602). However, it was determined that the mean geriatric depression posttest score was 13.50 ± 9.02 in the control group and 9.23 ± 6.71 in the intervention group, and there was a significant difference between the posttest scores of the groups (p = .042). No significant difference was found between the pretest and posttest geriatric depression scale scores of the control group (t = 1.346; p = .189). The posttest geriatric depression score of the intervention group was significantly lower than the pretest score (t = 5.966; p = .0001). In the study, it was determined that the mean self-efficacy pretest score was 79.63 ± 12.62 in the control group, 75.63 ± 14.20 in the intervention group, and there was no significant difference between the pretest scores of the groups (p = .254). It was determined that the mean self-efficacy posttest score was 83.10 ± 11.35 in the control group and 84.50 ± 14.41 in the intervention group, and there was no significant difference between the posttest scores of the groups (p = .678). The posttest self-efficacy score of the intervention group was found to be significantly higher than the pretest score (p = .001). The empowerment intervention was determined to decrease the elderly individuals' depression and increase their self-efficacy levels.