A study on the prevalence of depression and eating disorder among females of fertile age group in Chennai

Aim: Eating disorders (ED) are among the most common psychiatric problems seen in females of reproductive age group. It has got a persistent impact, comorbid psychopathology, medical complications, and elevated mortality. This article is mainly focussed to explore the impact of depression among the adolescent young females and the women of reproductive age group. Materials and Methods: It is a questionnaire based study, where 70 females (age: 13-45 years) were selected. They were asked to fill out questionnaires on eating attitudes and behaviours with the help of 26-item Eating Attitudes Test (EAT). The depression scoring was done with the help of 6-ITEM Kutcher Adolescent Depression Scale (KADS6). Participants who scored ≥ 20 on the EAT were considered to have abnormal eating pattern and effect of psychological, behavioural, and socio-environmental variables in individuals with and without eating disorders, were assessed. The KADS score ≥ 6 is considered to have possible sign of depression among the study population. Results: Depression seen among eating disordered females was observed with the odds ratio of 1.63(0.49-5.38). The females with BMI less than 23 had more depression and eating disorder scoring than the females with BMI ≥23 as their odds ratio were 1.16(0.42-3.23) respectively. The prevalence of eating disorder and depression with 95% confidence interval was ±19.7% and 33.8% among the study population. Statistical significance was not significant as the sample size was inadequate. But there is a strong correlation between BMI and depression with X2(chi square test) of 0.0001. Conclusion: Depression is prevalent among fertile female age group with significant eating disorder pattern and it is strongly associated with various psychological, behavioral, and socio-environmental domains. Future prospective and experimental studies are needed to expand our understanding of the risk factors and the morbidity to enable better preventive programme planning.