RESUMEN
BACKGROUND: Though many adolescents are suffering from depression in Korea, there have been few studies about the prevalence of it and depressive adolescents are not managed appropriately yet because of ignorance of the society and family. This study was intended to find out college freshmen's prevalence of depression, and the relationship between family function and depression. METHODS: The subjects were college freshmen of one university both in Seoul and Suwon and the study period was from January to February on 1999. Family APGAR was used as a family function index and Beck's Depression Inventory (BDI) was used to measure the degree of depression. Chi square tests and logistic regression were done for analysis using SPSS 8.0/PC program. RESULTS: The prevalence of depression among college freshmen was 1.5%(37 out of 2465) as of BDI score 21 or more. Depression was more common in the families with low Family APGAR score and those in Suwon campus. No significant differences were found in gender, age, blood pressure, blood type, BMI, present illness, number of families, marital status of parents or siblings. Relative risks of depression were 4.5 times for family dysfunction group and 2.6 times for Suwon campus group. CONCLUSION: Depression is not a rare disease among college freshmen. Therefore, family physician as a primary care physician should consider the possibility of depression among adolescence and screen depression using BDI for adolescents in dyfunctional family particularly.