Primary care physicians' attitudes, practices, and perceived barriers toward depression screening in older people in the Kingdom of Bahrain.

Purpose: This study aimed to explore attitudes, practices, and perceived barriers of primary care physicians (PCPs) toward depression screening in older people. Methods: This cross-sectional study enrolled PCPs from randomly selected representative primary care centers in Bahrain. A self-administered piloted semi-structured questionnaire was used for data collection. Results: We enrolled 248 PCPs in the study (82.3% females, and the mean age = 40 ± 8.7 years). More than half of the participants (54.4%) had a positive attitude toward depression screening in older people. However, only 10.9% of the participants reported systematically screening for this condition without using specific tools for screening in 45.5%. The most reported barriers toward this service are short consultation time (95%), the presence of multiple co-morbidities in this age group (90%), and the absence of guidelines or appropriate training in around 30%. Positive attitudes were significantly higher among older PCPs ( Conclusion: More training on older people's mental health and provision of screening and management guidelines are priorities to promote older people's mental health in primary care settings.