Prevalence of depression in adults of 25-45 years in Kalutara

Divisional Director of Health Services (DDHS) Area

Ruwan Ferdinando1, Rohini de Alwis Seneviratne2, Damani de Silva3, Athula Sumathipala4

1. Consultant Community Physician, NIHS, Nagoda, Kalutara

2. Professor of Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo
3. Consulatnt Psychiatrist
4. Consulatnt Psychiatrist, Director, Institute for Research and Development

Background
Depressive disorders are prevalent, disabling, chronic or recurrent illnesses, causing a high disease burden globally. General population surveys
conducted in many parts of the world have revealed high depression rates with a lifetime prevalence of 7-12 % for men and 20-25 % for women.
However, surveys in Sri Lanka, have revealed very low prevalences (point prevalence of 0.13% and 6-month period prevalence of 0.19%: Table 1) .

Table 1: Prevalence of depression in the past studies

Author Sample Size Method Category of depression Prevalence

Wijesinghe et al. 1978 7653 individuals in a semi- First screened by social ‘endogenous depression’ 6-month period prevalence
urban area in Sri Lanka workers and probable cases and ‘neurotic depression’ of 0.05% and 0.14%
examined by psychiatrists respectively

Jayasundera 1969 8734 individuals Screened first by a group of ‘affective illness’ 0.13%.
inAluthgama-Bandaragama, medical students and
Seeduwa, Vadukoddai and suspected cases
Uda Peradeniya-Urawela interviewed by psychiatrists

Methods Results
Design: Overall response rate was 97.8%.
A descriptive cross-sectional study
Table 2: Prevalence of different types of depression in the present study
Setting:
Kalutara DDHS Area
Adjusted
Study population: Type of depression Instrument Confidence Interval
Prevalence
A sample of 960 adults
Life-time depression CIDI 7.8% 6.1%-9.5%
Sampling method:
Two-stage cluster sampling method
Current depression CES-D 11.2% 9.2%-13.2%
Instruments:
Composite International Diagnostic
Interview (CIDI-Core lifetime version 2.1) Concurrent life-time and
CIDI & CES-D 3.9% 2.7-5.1%
•Developed by WHO current depression
•Internationally validated
•Interviewer administered
•Produces ICD-10 diagnoses of a Either life-time or
CIDI or CES-D 15.7% 13.4%-18.0%
lifetime depressive episode current depression
(depressive symptoms at least for a
period of two weeks) and dysthymia
(low grade depressive symptoms at Dysthymia CIDI 0.43% 0.0%-0.8%
least for a period of 2 years)
Center for Epidemiologic Studies
Depression Scale (CES-D)
•self-administered
•measures depressive symptoms
during the last week Conclusions
These were translated into Sinhala and • Depression has a higher prevalence than those rates observed in previous studies.
validated.

Data collectors:
Public health midwives and public health
nursing sisters were employed as data Acknowledgements: The National Science Foundation for providing the funds, WHO and the
collectors Director of the National Institute of Health Sciences for giving permission