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Prevalence of depression and associated factors among adults: The PERSIAN Guilan cohort study (PGCS)

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Abstract

Aim

Depression is one of the most common mental disorders and affects many people around the world. Studies show different and conflicting prevalence rates in Iran. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence and associated risk factors for depression in the Prospective Epidemiological Research Studies of the Iranian Adults (PERSIAN) Guilan cohort study (PGCS).

Subject and methods

In this cross-sectional study, the population consisted of 10,520 individuals aged 35–70 years in the PGCS (Sowme’eh Sara, Guilan, Iran), which was conducted in 2014–2017. Demographic, anthropometric, and self-report depression data were used, and statistical analysis was performed using SPSS version 16.0 software.

Results

The prevalence of depression was 5.2% in this study and was more prevalent in women than in men (7.3% vs. 2.8%). According to the adjusted analysis, depression was significantly associated with female gender, being divorced, being unemployed, higher educational level, less physical activity, and presence of a chronic disease.

Conclusion

Pre-existence of underlying disease is likely to be the greatest risk factor associated with higher prevalence of depression. In light of these findings, there is a need to improve evidence-based and suitable community-based primary and secondary psychological health prevention programs.

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Data availability

All data and tables used in the manuscript were prepared originally by the authors and are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Code availability

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank all staff of the PERSIAN Guilan cohort study (PGCS) for their kind help in data collection.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, School of Medicine, Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Rasht, Iran

    Adeleh Isanazar & Robabeh Soleimani

  2. Gastrointestinal and Liver Diseases Research Center, Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Rasht, Iran

    Farahnaz Joukar, Niloofar Faraji, Tahereh Zeinali, Mohammadreza Naghipour & Fariborz Mansour-Ghanaei

  3. Department of Biostatistics, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Rasht, Iran

    Saman Maroufizadeh

Authors
  1. Adeleh Isanazar
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  2. Farahnaz Joukar
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  3. Saman Maroufizadeh
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  4. Niloofar Faraji
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  5. Tahereh Zeinali
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  7. Mohammadreza Naghipour
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Contributions

Adeleh Isanazar, Farahnaz Joukar, and Robabeh Soleimani contributed substantially to the conception or design of the work and approved the version to be published.

Saman Maroufizadeh contributed substantially to the analysis or interpretation of data.

Niloofar Faraji and Tahereh Zeinali drafted the work and revised it critically for important intellectual content.

Mohammadreza Naghipour and Fariborz Mansour-Ghanaei agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Fariborz Mansour-Ghanaei.

Ethics declarations

Consent to participate

Written consent was obtained from each participant after they were informed of the purpose and importance of the study. To ensure confidentiality of participants' information, codes were used whereby the name of the participant and any personally identifiable information was not written on the questionnaire.

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All participants gave their consent to publication.

Ethics approval

This study was approved by the ethics committees at the Guilan University of Medical Sciences [IR.GUMS.REC.1398.183]. Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants.

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The authors declare that they have no competing interests in this work.

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Isanazar, A., Joukar, F., Maroufizadeh, S. et al. Prevalence of depression and associated factors among adults: The PERSIAN Guilan cohort study (PGCS). J Public Health (Berl.) (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10389-023-01898-1

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