Background Depression is a common debilitating psychiatric disorder that is associated with high rates of mortality and morbidity and is a risk factor for type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Previous studies have shown that an increasing number of veterans have reported mental health or cognitive problems, with 19.5-22.8% reporting traumatic brain injury and 24.4% reporting Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. However, there are only limited studies reporting the trends of depression among U.S. veterans. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence and trend of depression among U.S. veterans.
Methods Data used were from six biennial surveys of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. The status of depression was screened using the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9). The weighted prevalence and its 95% confidence interval were calculated. Rao-Scott chi-square test measured bivariate association of depression and each exploratory variable. Cochran-Armitage trend test assessed depression prevalence trends. All analyses were performed with SAS 9.4 (SAS Institute, Inc).
Results Between 2005 and 2016, 16.3% of veterans spent more than half of the days feeling tired or having little energy. Over 15.0% of veterans also reported having trouble sleeping more than half of the days in the past two weeks. The overall prevalence of depression among veterans peaked in 2011-2012 with 12.3% of veterans scoring 10 or greater on the PHQ-9. Among female veterans, there is a general increasing prevalence of depression, escalating from 9.0% in the 2007-2008 cycle to 14.8% in the 2015-2016 cycle. White veterans consistently had a higher prevalence of depression when compared to Black and Hispanic veterans.
Conclusion Depression disparities existed in U.S. veterans and an increasing trend in prevalence were observed. Further research is needed to assess veterans that seek care outside of Veterans Affairs hospitals, as NHANES data only assess institutionalized individuals.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ETSU/oai:dc.etsu.edu:asrf-1088 |
| Date | 05 April 2018 |
| Creators | Collins, Candice, Wang, Kesheng, Xie, Xin, Liu, Ying |
| Publisher | Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University |
| Source Sets | East Tennessee State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Appalachian Student Research Forum |
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