Population frequency and risk factors for depression in Eastern Ukraine

The research is aimed to analysis of age-specific and gender-based risk factors for affective pathologies. Based on the population of the Kharkiv region, the population frequency of affective disorders was determined. It was calculated as probability for an individual to be affected throughout life and can be used for scientific purposes and genetic counseling. The age-specific cumulative frequencies were calculated, reflecting the risk for an individual to be affected in a specific period of life. They can be reference points in genealogical analysis. It has been shown that, despite a higher frequency in women, depressive disorders manifest earlier and tend to be more severe in men. That is, the female sex is a factor of increased risk, while affected men have a high background of genetic predisposition. To analyze risk factors, statistical material from specialized medical institutions of the Kharkiv region from 2010 to 2016 was used. The data were obtained from 1,199 patients who were hospitalized at the Institute of Neurology, Psychiatry and Narcology of the Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine, that is, they had extremely severe degrees of affective disorder and, probably, had a more significant genetic component in the structure of individual predisposition. The proportion of hospitalized women (74.9 %) was three times higher than the proportion of men (25.1 %) that significantly differs from the population sex ratio and indicates that the female sex is a factor of increased risk for affective pathology. The age of onset for affective disorders was lower in men than in women: bipolar disorder in males manifests 6 years earlier than in females, depressive episode – 2 years, recurrent depression – 5 years, chronic mood disorders – 4 years. On average, the difference between age of onset in women (46.6 years, 95% CI 45.7–47.5) and men (42.7 years, 95% CI 41.0–44.3) is 4 years. The maximum risk of affective disorder in women is between the age of 50 and 60 years, in men there are two peaks – at 20–30 and 45–60 years. The population frequency, that is an indicator of the risk for an affective disorder in the population of the Kharkiv region, is 0.21 %. The probability of affective disorder for men is 0.15 %, for women this indicator is 1.7 times higher – 0.26 %.