Abstract
There is a public health concern of elder wellbeing due to the pervasiveness of depression that affects the growing elder population internationally. Researchers have utilized non-pharmacological interventions to lessen elder depression as an alternative to prescription medications. Although various interventions have demonstrated efficacy in reducing elder depression, it is unclear which intervention type is the most effective and which moderating variables may contribute to such effectiveness. Therefore, the present study sought to investigate the efficacy of various non-pharmacological interventions published within the last ten years via meta-analysis, using the Hunter and Schmidt (1982) method. Preliminary results indicate that out of the six intervention categories coded for (physical activity, reminiscence, CBT, multiple intervention types, and other), reminiscence interventions (d = .4888) were the most effective intervention type, followed by other (d = .3908), and CBT (d = -.3333). Additionally, it was found that interventions that consisted of participants without cognitive deficits (B = -.2909, p = .0000), studies with fewer exposures (B = -.2620, p = .0000), smaller sample sizes (B = -.4343, p = .0000), younger samples (B = -.1037, p = .0044), and studies conducted outside of the United States (B = -.1686, p = .0000) had larger effect sizes. There were no significant differences between longer and shorter interventions (B = -.0133, p = .6773). The study contributes to further non-pharmacological interventions designed to reduce elder depression by investigating which intervention types and moderating variables best reduce depression in older adults.