Factors associated with depression: sex differences between residents of Quilombo communities

The Quilombola population is subject to numerous sources of social vulnerability, but few studies investigate their physical or mental health conditions.

To investigate the factors associated with depression in men and women, separately.

Cross-sectional population-based study with 764 randomly selected participants from five quilombo communities in Vitória da Conquista, Bahia, Brazil. The cutoff point for depression was ≥ 10 points, assessed by the Patient Health Questionnaire score (PHQ-9), and the presence of five or more symptoms. We estimated the prevalence ratio with 95% confidence intervals using Poisson regression models with robust estimators stratified by gender.

Among men, factors associated with depression were previous diagnosis of chronic illnesses, poor/very poor health self-assessment, and poor access to health services. Among women, the associated factors were previous diagnosis of psychiatric disorders, poor/very poor health self-perception, history of tobacco smoking, and self-declaration of race as not black.

Factors associated with depression differ between men and women and must be considered in interventions to fight depression within this population.