Prevalence and risk factors for depression in a rural setting

Abstract.

Background: Depressive disorders are common, and result in high individual and societal costs. The majority of research assessing depression has occurred in urban areas. There is a paucity of research examining the prevalence of and risk factors for depression in rural general practice. Aim: The aim of this study was to examine the prevalence of and risk factors for depression in a rural area of North Wales in the context of a large multi-centre European study. Method: One thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine people randomly selected from a health authority database underwent a two-phase screening method to identify depression. The first phase involved patients completing a self-rating postal questionnaire (the Beck Depression Inventory or BDI). In the second phase, those scoring above cut-off underwent detailed diagnostic interview (Schedules of Clinical Assessment in Neuropsychiatry or SCAN). The SCAN diagnostic interview can generate either DSM-IV or ICD-10 diagnoses; the DSM-IV classification system was used here. Results: One thousand two hundred and thirty-nine (63 %) people responded to the initial screening questionnaire. The prevalence rate for all DSM-IV depressive disorders was calculated to be 6.1 % (95 % CI 4.1, 9.0) whereas the prevalence rate for DSM-IV major depressive disorder was 5.1 % (CI 3.37, 7.66). Multivariate analysis indicated that several variables were related to BDI caseness, including gender, employment status, social support and negative life events. Conclusion: Levels of reported depression are relatively low in North Wales compared to those observed in a neighbouring urban area using comparable data collection methods. A number of factors traditionally associated with increased risk from depression were predictive of scoring above cut-off on the BDI in a rural North Wales sample.