Background: The concept of European psychologisation of depression versus somatisation in non-European populations has been the basis of several studies of cultural psychopathology in the general population. Little is currently known about cross-cultural differences and similarities in late-life depression symptom reporting. We cross-culturally compared symptom reporting in the context of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) among community-dwelling older adults from Spain and Nigeria.
Methods: We relied on data from two household multistage probability samples comprising 3,715 persons aged 65 years or older in the Spanish and Nigerian populations. All participants underwent assessments for MDD using the World Mental Health Survey version of the Composite International Diagnostic Interview. Cross-cultural comparison of broad somatic and psychological categories as well as relationship and influence of individual symptoms were analysed using the Symptom Network Analysis approach.
Results: Current MDD was diagnosed in 232 and 195 older persons from Spain and Nigeria, respectively. The symptom network of the two samples were invariant in terms of global strength, S(GSPAIN , GNIGERIA ) = 7.56, P = .06, with psychological and somatic symptoms demonstrating centrality in both countries. However, country-specific relationships and influence of individual symptoms were found in the network structure of both samples, M(GSPAIN , GNIGERIA ) = 2.95, P < .01.
Conclusion: Broad somatic and psychological symptoms categories contributed to the structural network of older Africans and their peers from the Spanish population. Variations in the relationship and influence of individual symptoms suggests that the functional and "communicative" role of individual symptoms may be differentiated by context specific imperatives. J Am Geriatr Soc 68:-, 2020.
Keywords: ate-life major depression; centrality measures; clinical intervention targets; cross-cultural study; symptom network analysis.
© 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.