Depression and anxiety symptoms and associated factors among community residents in Shenzhen, China: a cross-sectional study.

Abstract

Background: Depressive disorders and anxiety disorders are the most common psychiatric disorders. This study aims to investigate and assess the symptoms of depression and anxiety in general community residents in Shenzhen, China, and to explore their associated factors.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted with 1911 permanent community residents from three districts in Shenzhen as subjects. A self-designed structured questionnaire was used to collect basic demographic characteristics of the participants. Depression and anxiety symptoms were collected using Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) and Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7), respectively. Univariate and multivariate linear regression analyses were performed using SPSS to identify correlates of depression and anxiety symptoms.

Results: The detection rates of depression and anxiety symptoms among community residents in Shenzhen were 32.6% and 23.5%, respectively. Insomnia and neuroticism were the strongest predictors of depression and anxiety symptoms, and factors such as self-blame, growing up family environment stress, female gender, and alcohol consumption consistently predicted higher levels of depressive and anxiety symptoms. In addition, depressive symptoms among community residents in Shenzhen were associated with problem solving, life events, lie scale, and marital status. Negative emotions, withdrawal, individual exposure to abusive events, positive coping, negative coping, occupation, and frequency of alcohol consumption in the past 12 months, on the other hand, had an impact on anxiety symptoms.

Conclusions: The results of the study demonstrate the overall profile of depression and anxiety among community residents in Shenzhen and discuss the factors associated with their depression and anxiety symptoms. This may be instructive for providing accessible and targeted support and interventions for depression and anxiety symptoms among community residents in Shenzhen to improve their mental health and well-being in life, as well as for other cities undergoing similar rapid changes.