Abstract
This study aimed to examine the prevalence of depressive symptoms and related factors in Japan. For this purpose, a questionnaire including the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) was administered to employees from Akita prefecture, Japan. The cutoff point for CES-D scores was 16 or above (high scorers). We analyzed the results of this survey in order to identify relationships between the prevalence of high scores on the CES-D, sociodemographic status, and employment-related variables. In total, 2,220 employees—of whom 1,069 were men and 1,151, women—satisfactorily responded, and their responses indicated that 45.0 % (41.4 % for men, 48.2 % for women) had high scores on the CES-D. The identified sociodemographic and occupation-related factors from the binomial multivariate logistic regression for high scorers were as follows: a high risk of depression was associated with being women, short and/or long sleep durations, the occasional consumption of alcohol in men, and professional work and over 8 h of work per day in women. Older age groups and non-smoking women were associated with a lower risk. These results can be used in the future as CES-D benchmark values, and might be useful in predicting the occurrence of depressive disorders.
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank all occupational physicians of the occupational health promotion centers and their assistants for their help during the course of the investigation, and also all of the operators who contributed to the study.
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Fushimi, M., Saito, S. & Shimizu, T. Prevalence of Depressive Symptoms and Related Factors in Japanese Employees as Measured by the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D). Community Ment Health J 49, 236–242 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-012-9542-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-012-9542-x