Depression, anxiety and stress, comorbidity evaluation among a large sample of general adults: results from SEPAHAN study

Depression, anxiety and stress are common psychological disorders (PDs).This study aimed to assess the odds of co-occurrence of mentioned PDs in total sample and different levels of socio-demographic characteristics, specifically among a large sample of general adults.Ina cross-sectional, community-based study conducted among 4763 Iranian adults, depression and anxiety were assessed with Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and stress with General Health Questionnaire (GHQ). The loglinear analysis was applied to investigate their comorbidities. Based on selected models with pair-comorbidity of anxiety with stress, depression with stress, and anxiety with depression, the results showed the odds of comorbidity between anxiety and depression (odds ratio (OR) =12.29, 95%CI: 9.58-15.80), depression and stress (OR = 7.80, 95%CI:6.55-10.18), and stress and anxiety (OR = 4.62, 95%CI:3.71-5.75). Also, ORs of pair-comorbidities were the same, except between stress and anxiety for men compared to women (adjusted-OR = 6.47, 95%CI: 4.44-9.49 versus 3.85, 95%CI:2.95-5.00) and comorbidity between stress and depression for the participants withlower than 40 years compared to others (adjusted-OR = 9.03, 95%CI: 7.17-11.36 versus 6.41, 95%CI: 4.90-8.41), p< 0.05. Stress comorbidity with depression was higher level than other pair-comorbidities. Obvious discrepancies were also observed in terms of ORs of pair-comorbidities between three mentioned disorders in different levels of SDCs.

Association between Serum Ferritin and Goitre in Iranian School Children.

Despite long-standing supplementation of iodine in Iran, the prevalence of goitre among general people remains high in some regions. The study investigated the role of iron status in the aetiology of goitre in school children in Isfahan, Iran. Two thousand three hundred and thirty-one school children were selected by multi-stage random sampling. Thyroid size was estimated by inspection and palpation. Urinary iodine concentration (UIC) and serum ferritin (SF) were measured. Overall, 32.9% of the children had goitre. The median UIC was 195.5 μg/L. The mean±SD of SF in the goitrous and non-goitrous children was 47.65±42.51 and 44.55±37.07 μg/L respectively (p=0.52). The prevalence of iron deficiency in goitrous and non-goitrous children was 9.6% and 3.1% respectively (p=0.007). Goitre is still prevalent in school children of Isfahan. However, their median UIC was well in the accepted range. Iron deficiency is associated with goitre in a small group of goitrous children. The role of goitrogens should also be investigated in this region.