Depression and its associated factors in 13-19 years old rural adolescents

Purpose There is a dearth of research on the prevalence of depression in adolescent from rural areas in the Bangladesh subcontinent. Therefore, the present study was aimed at assessing the level of depression and the associated risk factors in the rural adolescents in Bangladesh. Methods This was a cross-sectional, household-based epidemiological study involving only 151 adolescents from 13 to 19 years age group. The Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) was used to measure the presence of depression. Other risk factors were evaluated by a number of questions; a semi-structured interview was used to diagnose depression in this sample. Results Using CES-D scale, prevalence of depression was 53.6% (n = 151); smoking (OR 0.254, CI 1.730-2.273), domestic violence (OR 0.337, CI 1.590-2.061), and stressful events in life (OR 0.269, CI 1.666-2.132) emerged as significant predictors of depression; the model explained 24.1–32.3% of the variance in this sample. Conclusion The present study confirms the findings from previous studies that childhood depression is a distinct diagnostic entity affecting a significant number of adolescents.