Depression prevalence in adolescents

Abstract

Introduction. This study aimed to know the prevalence of depressive manifestations in adolescents and the sociodemographic variables associated with them.

Method. Design: observational, descriptive, cross-sectional study. Location: three urban teaching centers. Participants: 389 students of obligatory secondary education from 12 to 16 years who answered the questionnaire freely and anonymously. Measurements: Questionnaire of Depression for Children (CDS), self-applicable, validated in their Spanish adaptation for their individual and collective administration. Family APGAR questionnaire. Variables regarding sociodemographic, academic yield and presence of chronic illnesses circumstances.

Results. 10 children were excluded because they answered in an incomplete way. In the 379 study subjects, 39 had a score on the CDS in the depressive range (decatype ≥8): 10.29% (95% CI: 7.2%-13.3%). In the bivariate analysis, we only found differences for the presentation of depressive symptoms in connection with the existence of family dysfunction diagnosed by the APGAR test: 24.4 % versus 6.1 % (p < 0.0001). In the logistic regression analysis, the model that best predicts the presence of one diagnosis of depression includes the family dysfunction variable, with an OR = 4.27 (95 % CI: 1.98-9.21) for mild dysfunction and OR = 14.44 (95 % CI: 4.61-45.17) for serious dysfunction, and sibling number with OR = 0.56 (95 % CI: 0.33-0.93).

Conclusions. Prevalence of depressive manifestations among adolescents is high, being more frequent in members of dysfunctional families, while a greater number of siblings would have a protective effect.