The Prevalence of Depression among Female Householders Covered by the Imam Khomeini's Relief Committee

Introduction & Depression is one of the most common psychiatric disorders causing lack of motivation, performance disturbance and disability. It imposes great expenses on the family and community. The present study was carried out tofind the prevalence of depression among female householders covered by the Imam Khomeini’s Relief Committee. In this cross-sectional and descriptiveanalytic study, a total of 435 female householders covered by the Imam Khomeini’s Relief Committee were studied at the Health Center of Kerman University of Medical Sciences in 2010. Datawere gathered by both the Beck depression questionnaire and demographic feature questionnaire. Data analysis was performed by using Pearson Coefficients of Correlations and ANOVA using the SPSS version 17 software package. Mean depression score was 22.60 ±11.4 and th prevalence of depression in the studied population was 310 (71.3%) (Interval confidence: 66.8-75.5). From all, 79 (18.2%) had mild depression, 120 (27.6%) had moderate depression and111 (25.5%) had severe depression. The prevalence rate of depression was 72 (70.6%) in divorced women, 134 (68.7%) in widowed women, 69 (75.8%) in women with disabled husbands and 35 (74.5%) in women with imprisoned husbands. There wereno significant relationships between depression score and variables of age (p=0.102), educational level (p=0.380) and marital statues (p=0.613). But the depression score showed a significant relationship with the number of children (p=0.013) in a way that the rate of depression in women who had no children was higher. This study indicated that there were higher rate of depression among female householders compared to other studies. This finding emphasizes on providing more job opportunities for women and enabling them to fulfill their financial and emotional needs.