Factors Influencing Women's Depression According to Age

Abstract

This study aimed to analyze factors influencing womens depression by age group and propose data for the development of an age-appropriate depression-related intervention program.

Data were extracted from the 2014, 2016, and 2018 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES). The participants were 10,019 women in their twenties to their seventies. The study variables were general, physical, and psychological characteristics. General characteristics according to physical activity and differences in physical and psychological factors were analyzed using the ?²-test and t-test. Factors influencing depression were analyzed using linear regression analysis.

There were differences between the groups in all general characteristics, physical characteristics, and psychological characteristics. Among those in their twenties and thirties, marital status, obesity, economic activity, hypertension, obesity, drinking amount per time, smoking, subjective health, subjective body image, stress, and quality of life were significant factors influencing depression. The explanatory power was 37.4% (p< .001). As for those in their forties and fifties, household income, marital status, economic activity, obesity, weight change, frequency of drinking, smoking, subjective health, stress, and quality of life were significant factors influencing depression, with an explanatory power of 40.5% (p< .001). Finally, among women in their sixties and seventies, education level, obesity, subjective health, subjective body image, stress, and quality of life were significant factors influencing depression; their explanatory power was 36.1% (p< .001). Increased subjective perception of being thin was related to less stress and depression and a higher quality of life.

This study found several meaningful influencing factors. Based on the results of this study, when planning an intervention program to control women's depression, the age difference of the subjects must be considered.