[Adolescence and depressive symptoms: are group health questionnaires useful in detecting them?]

Abstract

Introduction: Depressive symptomatology during adolescence can have severe consequences when not treated. Formal health and surveillance programs rarely research its presence.

Objective: To determine whether it is possible to integrate a depressive symptomatology questionnaire into a standard health survey; to determine whether there are relationships with common variables in such surveys.

Design: A cross-sectional analytical study, using both bivariate and multivariate logistic regression. Questionnaires, administered during school hours, included the 21-Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), items from the "Health Habits in the Youth Population of Madrid Surveillance System" and the Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS, Atlanta).

Setting: Two Health Areas in Vallecas (Madrid).

Participants: All 798 pupils (13-20 years) attending school filled in the questionnaires. Rate of participation of centers: 100%, of the surveyed groups: 79.2%.

Exclusion criteria: pupils who were absent or refused to participate.

Results: An association was found between the main variable, depressive symptomatology by BDI, and the following: a) for severe depressive symptomatology: gender (female, odds ratio [OR]=11; 95% confidence interval [95% CI], 4.2-28.8), family relationships (per unit of decrease, OR=3.4; 95% CI, 2.3-5, quantitative variable), risk behaviors (two or three, OR=2.9; 95% CI, 1.3-6.7; four or more, OR=5.3; 95% CI, 2.1-13.4), and b) for moderate depressive symptoms: the previous ones, plus academic achievement (per unit of decrease, OR=1.53; 95% CI, 1.1-2.1, quantitative variable).

Conclusions: it is possible to include depressive symptomatology into health surveys for adolescent populations. These results will allow professionals to assess the presence of depressive symptomatology from relevant surveys which are not usually investigated. There should be discussions on the suitability of current programs.