Prevalence of depressive symptoms among perimenopausal female teachers for both Primary and High School levels

Depression is the main cause of disability-adjustedlost years around the world; hormonal changes which happen duringmenopause seem to increase susceptibility to develop depression.Aim: To establish depressive symptoms prevalence among femaleteachers aged 45 to 55 living at the Metropolitan Area of the Cityof Bucaramanga. Method: Cross-sectional survey with CES-D.Multivariated analysis was made to adjust confounding caused bydemographic and sexual/reproductive history variables with clinicallysignificant depressive symptoms (CSDS). Results: 581 womenparticipated (age average 50.3 years), 19.2% took hormonal therapy(HT); 50.2% (95%CI 45.3-55.2) were at their menopause. CES-Dscore oscillated between 0 and 39 points (average 13.6), beingsuperior among women with more time of amenorrhea, but not accordingto age, marital status, HT or sexual life. CSDS prevalencewas 32.4% (95%CI 28.6-36.3), but adjusted by predictive valuesallows to estimate a depression prevalence in 11.5%. The associatedfactors with CSDS were age (prevalence rate –PR– 0.948,95%CI 0.912-0.986), to have active sexual life (PR 0.492, 95%CI0.384-0.632), amenorrhea time (PR 1.57, 95%IC 1.057, IC 95%1.035-1.080), being divorced (PR 0.604, 95%CI 0.371-0.983), beingsingle (PR 0.590, 95%CI 0.381-0.914) and living out of wedlock.(PR 1.707, 95%CI 1.352-2.155). Conclusions: The depressionprevalence among perimenopauseal female teachers is similar to thegeneral population, being their risk factors similar to ones alreadyinformed in the medical literature.