Sociodemographic correlates of depressive symptoms: a cross-sectional analytic study among healthy urban Ghanaian women
Open accessAbstract
BACKGROUND: Studies on healthy individuals that show minor signs of distress and depression-but that are not significant enough to be debilitating or to report to the hospital for treatment-are rare. Our primary objective was to measure the prevalence of depressive symptoms and sociodemographic correlates among healthy women 18 years and above in urban Accra, Ghana. METHOD: We used secondary data from the Women's Health Study of Accra, Wave 1 (WHSA-1), a large scale, analytic, cross-sectional study conducted in Accra, Ghana involving 3183 women. The presence or absence of depressive symptoms within the past 30 days was estimated from the average score on three common symptoms of depression: sleep, anxiety, and sadness. The explanatory variables were age-group, socioeconomic level, marital status, ethnicity, religion, education, employment, and parity. Frequencies and means were used to summarize categorical and continuous variables, respectively. Logistic regression analyses were employed to determine the predictors of depressive symptoms. RESULTS: The prevalence of depressive symptoms within the previous 30 days was 26.5% (95% CI: 25.0-28.1). Women 55 years and older were more likely than women between the ages of 18 and 24 to experience depressive symptoms (AOR 2.8, 95% CI: 2.0-4.0, p < 0.001), whilst women between the ages of 35 and 54 were 1.95 times more likely than women between the ages of 18 and 24 to experience depression (AOR 1.95, 95% CI: 1.40-2.70, p < 0.001). Self-employed women were less likely to report depressive symptoms compared to the unemployed (AOR 0.70, 95% CI: 0.56-0.87, p < 0.01). Akans were less likely to experience depressive symptoms compared to Ga women (AOR 0.75, 95% CI: 0.61-0.92, p < 0.01). Non-orthodox Christians were more likely to report depressive symptoms compared to Orthodox Christians (AOR 1.32, 95% CI: 1.09-1.60, p < 0.01). CONCLUSION: The prevalence of symptoms of depression among healthy urban Ghanaian women is high. Older women, those with low education, and unemployed women appear to be at higher risk for depression and therefore should be targeted for interventions. Groups at risk for depression-especially older adults or individuals under economic strain-should be targeted for mood assessment as part of routine medical care.
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- Authors
- Bonful, H. A., & Anum, A.
- Affiliations
- University of Ghana (GH)
- Corresponding author
- Anum, Adote
- Venue
- BMC Public Health
- Published
- 2019-01-10
- Volume
- 19
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 50-50
- ISSN
- 1471-2458 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC6327433
- OpenAlex
- W2919915583
- Cited by
- 31
- References
- 23
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 11
- FWCI
- 5.97
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- BMC Public Health (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Greater South Information System
- Funders
- World Health Organization
- United States Agency for International Development
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Mental Health Treatment and Access
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Health and Well-being Studies
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Maternal Mental Health During Pregnancy and Postpartum
- Keywords
- depressive symptoms, subthreshold depression, healthy women, sociodemographic correlates, depression prevalence, age and depression, employment status, ethnicity, parity, marital status, Accra, Ghana, older women, women's mental health
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Age Factors, Aged, Cross-Sectional Studies, Depression, Depressive Disorder, Educational Status, Employment, Female, Ghana, Humans, Longitudinal Studies, Middle Aged, Pregnancy, Religion, Socioeconomic Factors, Stress, Psychological, Urban Health, Urban Population, Prevalence, Women's Health, Young Adult
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