ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: In adolescents, major depression is projected to rank the second most cause of human illness by the year 2022. Unfortunately, half of the depressed adolescents go undiagnosed in primary care settings. OBJECTIVES: The objective is to estimate the prevalence of severe depression among rural adolescents and also to identify few epidemiological determinants causing severe depression. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: This cross-sectional study included 341 adolescents from a selected village of Balasore, Odisha. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A semi-structured questionnaire, and "Beck's Depression Inventory II" questionnaire for screening depression. RESULTS: Only 24 (7%) of adolescents were found to be having severe depression. The subcategories of depression showed mild mood disturbance in 8.8%, borderline depression in 15.2%, and moderate depression in 12% individuals. Almost 267 (78.2%) were between 15 and 19 years of age. The mean age (standard deviation) of the participants was 16 ± 1.9 years. Majority of the participants belonged to joint family and lower middle-class status as per the Modified Kuppuswamy Scale. CONCLUSION: Female gender was found to be significantly associated with depression (P = 0.006). Other contributory factors for depression were sleep duration (<6 h), parental fighting, and socioeconomic status.
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION: Orphans and the other vulnerable children and adolescents (OVCA) living in institutional homes are more prone to behavioral and emotional problems than others as they are deprived of a family's love and care. There is a dearth of studies focusing on the psychological health of these children in India. Hence, we have conducted a cross-sectional descriptive study to explore the behavioral and emotional problems in these institutionalized children. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The sample consisted of 292 orphans and OVCA in institutional homes of Visakhapatnam city. The sociodemographic data were collected using a semi-structured questionnaire. The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) with impact supplement was used to assess the behavioral and emotional problems in them. RESULTS: In our study, 49 (16.78%) out of 292 children and adolescents were found to be having behavioral and emotional problems. Factors such as age, sex, reason for being in the institute, age of admission, and years of stay in the home were all seen to be significantly associated (P < 0.05) with emotional and behavioral problems. Conduct problems (34.90%) were found to be most prevalent followed by peer problems (15.80%), emotional problems (14.70%), hyperactivity (8.60%), and low prosocial behavior (3.40%). CONCLUSION: The present study shows that the orphans and OVCA in institutional homes are vulnerable to behavioral and emotional problems. The screening for conduct problems, emotional problems, hyperactivity, and peer problems needs to be done at a regular basis for these children. Given the paucity of data in this regard, several multicenter studies also need to be done to get an overall comprehensive view of these problems.
