Objective: To estimate the prevalence and demographic and socioeconomic factors associated with depression in adults and in the elderly in a low income community of Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul.
Methods: Cross-sectional study of adults with ≥ 20 years of age living in the Health Districts of Restinga/Extremo Sul, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, between July and December 2009. The dependent variable was depression measured by the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale. Independent variables were sex, age, current marital status, educational level and economic level. The Chi-square test was used for the crude analysis and Poisson regression with robust variance for the adjusted analysis.
Results: Among respondents, the prevalence of depression was 16.1% (95% CI: 14.9%, 17.4%). After adjusted analysis, we found that depression was associated with the female gender (PR = 2.38). In addition, there was a trend of higher occurrence of depression with increasing age and decreasing levels of schooling and income.
Conclusions: The values of the results for depression were similar to other population studies. Specific attention should be given to women and individuals with low schooling.