Abstract
Introduction: Depression is a major public health concern as it relates to chronic diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes mellitus. Despite the association of depression with chronic diseases, a limited number of studies are available to examine the prevalence of depression and its association with socio-economic status (SES)in the US adult general population. Aim: The purpose of this study was to 1) determine the prevalence of depression among US adult population using current data from National Health and Nutrition Examine Survey (NHANES), 2015- 2016; and 2) examine the magnitude of association of SES with depression among this general adult population. Methods: We analyzed data from 5,164 participants of NHANES, 2015-2016, which is a multistage cluster sample design survey, representing the non-institutionalized US adult population. Depression was assessed using the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9). PHQ-9 ≥10 is considered having depression. SES was measured by education and family poverty income ratio (PIR). We categorized PIR into low, medium, and high. Education was categorized into four groups: up to 11th grade, high school completed or general education development (GED), some college or associate of arts, and college graduate or above. Proc survey procedure was applied in SAS 9.2.4 version, and the weighted percentage, and odds ratios (OR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) were reported. Results: The prevalence of depression was 7.47% in the NHANES, 2015-2016, which represented 16.5 million people. The OR of depression among females was 1.73 times higher (95% CI: 1.30,2.31) compared to males. The OR of depression was 2.98 times higher with low PIR (95% CI: 1.58,5.60) in comparison to people with high PIR. Conclusion: Given the high prevalence of depression, primary care practitioner, public health professionals, and health care policy makers should be aware of depression with special attention to the female gender and individuals with low PIR.
Highlights
Depression is a major public health concern as it relates to chronic diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes mellitus
Participants were divided between 18 to 55 years old (63.00 %) and > 55 years old (36.99 %) into two age groups.13.93% people completed up to 11th grades with no diploma, 20.93% people completed high school/ general education development (GED), 33.01% graduated from some college or associate of arts degree, and 32.13% graduated from college or above
54.50% of people were married, 18.09% widowed/ divorced/ separated, 17.62% were never married, and 9.79% were living with partners. 26.02% belonged to low poverty to income ratio (PIR), 47.29% in medium PIR, and 26.69% in high PIR. 92.53% of people were not depressed, and 7.47% of people were depressed
Summary
Depression is a major public health concern as it relates to chronic diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes mellitus. Despite the association of depression with chronic diseases, a limited number of studies are available to examine the prevalence of depression and its association with socio-economic status (SES)in the US adult general population. Depression is a major public health threat as it relates to many. At least one in five US adults’ experiences depression in their life time, and the prevalence of depression is approximately 8% [5]. The World Health Organization (WHO) identified depression as the fourth major cause of total disease load and the leading cause of disability worldwide [6]. According to WHO, depression is expected to be the second leading cause of disability by 2020 and the largest contributor to disease burden by 2030. Depression is linked to increased morbidity as depression decreases psychosocial abilities and work performance and increases the risk of absenteeism in the workplace [9,10]
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