RESEARCH ARTICLE


A Randomized Clinical Trial of the Effect of Zinc Supplement on Depression and Anxiety in the Elderly



Abolfazl Afzali1
iD
, Zarichehr Vakili2
iD
, Shahrbanoo Goli3
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, Hossein Bagheri4
iD
, Seyedmohammad Mirhosseini5, 6
iD
, Hossein Ebrahimi7, *
iD

1 Student Research Committee, School of Nursing & Midwifery, Shahroud University of Medical Sciences, Shahroud, Iran
2 Infectious Diseases Research Center, Kashan University of Medical Sciences, Kashan, Iran
3 Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Shahroud University of Medical Sciences, Shahroud, Iran
4 School of Nursing & Midwifery, Shahroud University of Medical Sciences, Shahroud, Iran
5 Nursing and Midwifery Care Research Center, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran
6 Department of Psychiatric Nursing, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran
7 Center for Health Related Social and Behavioral Sciences Research, Shahroud University of Medical Sciences, Shahroud, Iran


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Creative Commons License
© 2021 Afzali et al.

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

* Address correspondence to this author at the Center for Health Related Social and Behavioral Sciences Research, Shahroud University of Medical Sciences, Shahroud, Iran; Tel: 0098 233 2393811; Fax: 0098 233 2394852; E-mail: ebrahimi@shmu.ac.ir


Abstract

Background:

Anxiety and depression in the elderly are considered important mental disorders.

Objective:

This study was designed to determine the effect of zinc Supplementation on depression and anxiety in the elderly.

Methods:

This study was a parallel randomized clinical trial. A total of 150 elderly aged 60 years and older were allocated into intervention and control groups by using the quadruple blocking method. The elderly in the intervention group received a daily dose of 30 mg zinc supplementation pill for 70 days and the elderly in the control group did not receive this supplement. Depression and anxiety in the elderly were measured using the Geriatric Depression Scale and the Beck Anxiety Inventory, respectively. A significance level of 0.05 was considered for all statistical tests.

Results:

After the intervention, the mean scores of depression and anxiety in the elderly were significantly decreased in the intervention group, as compared with the control group. Moreover, after the intervention, the serum zinc level in the elderly was significantly increased in the intervention group, as compared with the control group (P<0.05).

Conclusion:

The use of zinc supplements improved depression and anxiety in the elderly. Therefore, it is recommended to use zinc supplements as a new therapeutic strategy for the prevention and treatment of depression and anxiety in the elderly.

Registration No: This research was registered in the Iranian clinical trial system with code IRCT2017071635110N1.

Keywords: Anxiety, Depression, Elder, Geriatric nursing, Mood disorders, Zinc.