Two Key Studies of Prevalence Rates (HL IB Psychology)

Key study one (prevalence rates of MDD): Abdoli et al. (2022)

Aim: To investigate the global prevalence of MDD in the elderly.

Participants: 

• A total sample of 18,953 participants was derived from 20 studies used in this meta-analysis

• The participants constituted a cross-cultural sample with studies taken from countries and cultures worldwide

Procedure:  

• A meta-analysis of the aforesaid 20 studies accessed via a database of journals 

• The researchers conducted a systematic search for studies which had investigated MDD in elderly populations up to March 2021

Results:

• There is an MDD global prevalence rate of 13.3% in the elderly

• The prevalence rate for elderly women was 11.9%; for men it was 9.7% which is not statistically significant

• The highest prevalence rates of MDD in the elderly were seen in Australia (20.1%) followed by Europe (12.9%)

Conclusion: 

• MDD has high prevalence rates globally amongst the elderly so this finding should be used to implement social support as an intervention to mitigate the negative impact of MDD on older people’s mental health

• Gender may be an issue in reporting or being diagnosed with MDD but it is not as significant so no stereotype-based assumptions should be made when suggesting treatment and therapies for MDD in the elderly

Evaluation of Abdoli et al. (2022)

Strengths

• The use of a large sample and statistical analysis means that the results of this study could be said to be robust and reliable

• With a growing global population of older people this is useful research as it will become increasingly necessary to address the needs of older people, including their mental health

Limitations

• The research is able to pinpoint prevalence rates of MDD but it cannot explain why some elderly people experience depressive symptoms which means that it lacks some explanatory power

• Prevalence rates can only provide information based on recorded statistics: there are doubtless many more people globally who experience MDD but who either don’t recognise it as such, don’t report it or don’t admit to themselves that they are depressed

Social support may be enough to prevent MDD in the elderly.

Key study two (prevalence rates of phobias): Frederikson et al. (1996)

Aim: To investigate prevalence rates of a range of specific phobias including claustrophobia, arachnophobia, astraphobia

Participants: 

• 704 adults from Sweden obtain via random sampling

• The participants were aged 18-70 years old

Procedure: 

• The participants completed a series of questionnaires and self-reports designed to determine the extent of their phobias and extreme fears 

• Visual analogue scales were used so that participants could express their level of fear and anxiety to phobic stimuli such as lightning, enclosed spaces, darkness, flying, heights, spiders, mutilation, injections and the dentist

• Below is a type of  visual analogue scale:

Results: 

• Participant responses were categorised into three classifications: animal phobias, blood-injection-injury phobias and natural environment and situational phobias

• The total prevalence for phobia across the group as a whole was 19.9% (26.5% for women, 12.4% for men)

• 5.4% of the women in the sample reported multiple phobias compared to 1.5% of the men

• Women reported more snake and spider phobias

• Fear of mutilation showed no gender difference

• Fear of flying and fear of inanimate objects but decreased fear of injections were reported by older female participants but not by older male participants

• The younger participants reported more fears surrounding animals

• The older women in the sample feared flying more than the younger women but feared injections less.

Conclusion: Prevalence rates of specific phobias may show differences based on gender and age.

Evaluation of Frederikson et al. (1996)

Strengths

• The use of the visual analogue scale to measure the emotional response of participants to specific phobia has some validity to it as it is a more authentic representation of fear/anxiety than that offered by a numerical scale

• Understanding that differences in the prevalence of specific phobias may depend on gender and age could be useful to therapists and counsellors

Limitations

• The visual analogue scale is open to interpretation: not everyone will have exactly the same understanding of each level of fear/anxiety which means that it lacks reliability as the measure is not likely to be consistent

• Although the age range of the sample is wide it only drew its participants from Sweden which means that the findings are not generalisable to people from other countries