Prevalence and Correlates of Depressive Symptoms among the Adolescents in an Urban Area in Korea

Cho, Seong Jin; Jeon, Hong Jin; Kim, Moo Jin; Kim, Jang Kyu; Kim, Uk Seon; Lyoo, In Kyoon; Cho, Maeng Je

Abstract

OBJECTIVE
We tried to see the prevalence and correlates of symptoms of depression in an adolescent population in Korea, and collected the basal data for mental health promotion of adolescents. METHOD: We sampled 2,203 adolescents among 71,102 adolescents living in Puchon City in Korea by the randomized clustered sampling method. The Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale(CES-D) was used to measure depressive symptoms. The measurements were conducted through visiting schools. Of the 2,203 adolescents(aged 13 to 18) who were sampled, 1,972 persons completed CES-D and sociodemographic questions. The response rate was 89.5%. RESULT: 1) The prevalence rate of 'probable' depressive symptoms with cutoff point 16 was 34.3% in the boys and 47.5% in the girls. 2) The prevalence rate of 'definite' depression symptoms with cutoff point 25 was 17.4% in the boys and 20.6% in the girls. 3) We could not find any meaningful difference in the average of CES-D from the districts where they live, the course of their education, and their religions. 4) We used the logistic regression analysis to find the risk factor for adolescent depression in these samples. Among the variables of sex, age, economic status considered by self, family structure, satisfaction with school degree, it was most important risk factor in adolescent depression to dissatisfy with their school degrees. Compared it with fully satisfied group, the odds ratio was 8.850. The group of mid to low socioeconomic status had the odds ratio 2.007 compared with high socioeconomic status. The girls had the odds ratio 1.307 compared with the boys. 5) The male versus female ratio was 1:1.38 in the total students and 1:1.88 in the middle school students, and 1:1.13 in the high school students. The male versus female ratio was relatively low in the high school students. It was the result of the high prevalence of depressive symptoms in the high school boys, and it was due to the large burden to their school degrees.
CONCLUSION
The depressive symptoms checked by CES-D were very common among adolescents in Korean urban area. The prevalence of depressive symptoms was 34.3% in the boys and 47.5% in the girls. The result that male versus female ratio was relatively low in the high school adolescents, and the group that were dissatisfied with the school degrees had high risk of depressive symptoms, revealed that the students had large burden to their school degrees and so they needed special concerns.