An overview of depression in the elderly: a US perspective

Surnames are the result of historic and cultural processes which give information about the ethnic composition and genetic structure of populations. Based on the use of isolation and sedentarisness estimators, obtained from surnames frequency and distribution, the population dynamics of highland communities located at the Province of Jujuy (Northwest of Argentina), situated in two ecologically different regions, was analysed. Surnames were obtained from register of electors (1982) and they correspond to 67 villages of Quebrada of Humahuaca and Puna Juje?a. The surnames were analysed exactly as they were registered (NM = Non-merged) and merged according to their spelling and or similarity in pronunciation (M = Merged). The following estimators were used: 1) percentage of the population covered by unique surnames; 2) percentage of the population covered by the most frequent surnames; 3) ratio between number of individuals and number of surnames. Inter-population differences were detected by means of non-parametric tests. It was observed that, in general, there are no statistically significant differences between NM and M data and among the towns in Quebrada de Humahuaca and Puna, but there were differences according to whether they were located on or away from the main road between regions. These results were compared with those of other populations and we conclude that the simultaneous use of the 4 estimators, to characterize the isolation or sedentarisness of vast population groups, show highly consistent results.