Sociodemographic and lifestyle determinants of depressive symptoms in a nationally representative sample of Greek adults: The Hellenic National Nutrition and Health Survey (HNNHS).

BACKGROUND

The aim of this study was to assess depressive symptomatology prevalence among Greek adults amidst the financial crisis and to explore the association between depressive symptoms and sociodemographic and lifestyle factors.

METHODS

The Hellenic National Nutrition and Health Survey including a nationally representative adult sample (3,675 adults; 48.7% males) was used. Trained personnel gathered information on sociodemographic and anthropometric characteristics and lifestyle status. Depressive symptoms were assessed using the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) and clinically relevant depressive symptomatology was defined as PHQ-9 score≥10, or on anti-depressant medication. Associations between depressive symptoms and the assessed factors were estimated using stratified multivariable logistic regression.

RESULTS

The prevalence of clinically relevant depression was 9.4%. In the regression, female sex, marital status (widowed vs. married), financial difficulties (yes vs. no), professional status (employed vs. unemployed), body mass index status (overweight/obese vs. normal weight), and smoking status (current and ex-smokers vs. never smokers) were significant, with an increased likelihood for depressive symptomatology in all variables, other than employment.

LIMITATIONS

The cross-sectional nature of the study does not allow detection of changes over time. Furthermore, it does not allow determining the presence of a temporal relationship between depression and the sociodemographic and lifestyle variables that we tested.

CONCLUSION

This study estimates a high prevalence of depressive symptoms among adults during the Greek financial crisis and points out important associations of depressive symptoms with different sociodemographic determinants and lifestyle factors, and provides policy health makers valuable information in their efforts to deal with this epidemic.