An investigation of the prevalence of depressive symptoms in newly recruited young adult men in Turkey

Abstract

The aim of this study is to determine prevalence of depressive symptoms among newly recruited young adult men in the Turkish army. This cross-sectional study was conducted to determine the prevalence of depressive symptoms in this population and to identify associations between depression and socio-demographic characteristics. The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), adapted for Turkey, was used to assess self-reported experiences of depression among 2910 young adult males who had been recently recruited, according to Turkish law, into the army. It was found that 29.9% ( n=835) of the recruits had depressive symptoms. The relationship between the level of depressive symptoms of the recruits and the recruits’ settlement type, educational level, income status, smoking and drinking status and level of interest in sports was statistically evaluated. Recruits who smoked or drank, who had low incomes and who were uninterested in sports had higher BDI scores. The prevalence of depressive symptoms (29.9%) found in this study is higher than rates found in studies of non-military populations in Turkey. The higher rate of depression may reflect problems in adapting to an environment that was significantly different from their previous lives in terms of environmental factors and life style, and that had strict disciplinary rules and a heavy physical workload.