Prevalence of depression in Mexican American women

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to ( 1) find the prevalence of depression in Mexican American women in Pima County and (2) to determine the relationship and significance between depression and biological and psychosocial variables. The biological variables measures included female gender, age, and reproductive phase (premenopause, perimenopause, postmenopause ). The psychosocial variables were marital status, place of birth, living arrangements, income level, educational attainment, employment status, and language preference. A descriptive cross sectional design was utilized to answer the research questions. The convenience sample consisted of 63 female subjects. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) statistical program was used to analyze data. A priori, the cut off rate for the depressed group was set at~ 16 points on the Center for Epidemiologic Scale (CESD) as determined by the instrument developers and previous researchers. The rate of depression found in the evaluated Mexican American population was 62.9%, which is extremely high compared to previous studies. Significant relationships were found between depression, educational attainment, income, being married, and being employed. The findings from this study suggest that the prevalence of depression in Mexican American women could be higher than was previously suggested.