Prevalence of depression among an African American community-based population

Estimates of lifetime prevalence of depression for African Americans (AA) (16%) are similar to rates of prevalence among whites in the United States. However, evidence of lower diagnosis and treatment rates continue to persist among minority groups. Health disparities in diagnosis and treatment lead to greater burden of morbidity for African Americans. This paper is to describe the prevalence of depression among participants in Project CHURCH, a 1462-person church-based cohort study to examine the role of lifestyle/behavioral, social, and environmental factors on minority health. AA men (n=370) and women (n=1092), between the ages of 18-87 years (M=45.23, SD=12.84), completed the Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression Scale (CES-D) via a computer based survey. The results indicated that the observed proportion for individuals who were at risk for depression (P=.188) was significantly greater than the expected proportion (P=.16) of individuals who were not at risk for depression, χ²(1, N=1462) = 8.59, p<.05. While not significant, more AA women (20.0%) reported depressive symptoms than AA men (15.4%), χ²(1, N=1462) = 3.76, p=.053. Participants, who were younger (p=.039), reported “high school” or less education (p=.013) and income less than 40,000 (p<.001) were of higher risk of depression. In this study, there was a higher risk of depression among African Americans. Implementing routine depression screenings for this group may increase the rate of individuals referred for further psychological evaluation and subsequent exposure to health information for preventive measures and available depression treatment.