The Saskatchewan health and back pain survey:: The prevalence and factors associated with depressive symptomatology in Saskatchewan adults

Objectives: To determine the one-week; period prevalence of depressive symptomatology among Saskatchewan adults and to identify sociodemographic and health factors associated with depressive symptomatology. Methods: The Saskatchewan Health and Back Pain Survey was mailed to an age-stratified random sample of adults. Of the 2,184 eligible subjects, 55% (n=1131) responded to the survey. We report age-standardized prevalence estimates stratified by age, gender and spinal pain Logistic regression was used to measure presence and strength of association between factors and depressive symptomatology. Results: 22.2% (95% CI 19.6-24.9) of' adults experienced depressive symptomatoloy during the previous week, with higher: rates in younger adults, in females, and in those with disabling spinal pain. Depressive symptomatology was associated with age,,me, smoking, health status, gastro-intestinal problems, headaches and spinal pain. Conclusions: Depressive symptomatology is common in the Saskatchewan adult population and is related to age, pain severity and general health.