Lemstra Mark, Neudorf Cory, Mackenbach Johan, D'Arcy Carl, Scott Christina, Kershaw Tanis, Nannapaneni Ushasri
Saskatoon Health Region, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.
Paediatr Child Health. 2008 Apr;13(4):285-90. doi: 10.1093/pch/13.4.285.
There have been too few studies on urban Aboriginal youth to permit inferences about depressed mood in this subgroup. The purpose of the present study was to determine whether Aboriginal cultural status is independently associated with moderate or severe depressed mood in youth after controlling for other covariates, including socioeconomic status.
Every student between grades 5 and 8 in the city of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, was asked to complete a questionnaire in February of 2007. Depressed mood was measured with a 12-question depression scale derivative of the 20-question Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale.
Four thousand ninety-three youth participated in the school health survey. For Aboriginal youth, the prevalence rate of moderate or severe depressed mood was 21.6% in comparison with 8.9% for Caucasian youth (rate ratio 2.43; 95% CI 1.92 to 3.08). Aboriginal cultural status was not associated with depressed mood after adjustment for other covariates in the final multivariate model (OR 1.132; 95% CI 0.682 to 1.881). Parental educational status and sex were confounders to the association between Aboriginal cultural status and depressed mood.
The recognition that Aboriginal cultural status is not independently associated with moderate or severe depressed mood in youth after full multivariate adjustment allows policy makers to acknowledge that mental health disparity prevention is possible because the determinants of health (ie, education) are modifiable (in comparison with Aboriginal cultural status).
针对城市原住民青年的研究过少，无法对该亚组人群的抑郁情绪进行推断。本研究的目的是在控制包括社会经济地位在内的其他协变量后，确定原住民文化身份是否与青年的中度或重度抑郁情绪独立相关。
2007年2月，要求萨斯喀彻温省萨斯卡通市5至8年级的每名学生完成一份问卷。抑郁情绪用一个由20个问题的流行病学研究中心抑郁量表衍生而来的12个问题的抑郁量表进行测量。
4093名青年参与了学校健康调查。对于原住民青年，中度或重度抑郁情绪的患病率为21.6%，而白人青年为8.9%（率比2.43；95%可信区间1.92至3.08）。在最终的多变量模型中，在调整其他协变量后，原住民文化身份与抑郁情绪无关（比值比1.132；95%可信区间0.682至1.881）。父母的教育程度和性别是原住民文化身份与抑郁情绪之间关联的混杂因素。
认识到在进行全面多变量调整后，原住民文化身份与青年的中度或重度抑郁情绪并非独立相关，这使政策制定者能够认识到预防心理健康差距是可能的，因为健康的决定因素（即教育）是可改变的（与原住民文化身份相比）。
