ABSTRACT
Background: Depression is one of the most frequent and prevalent mood disorders worldwide. Its global burden is
considerable. WHO estimates that more than 264 million people have been
diagnosed with this condition. The global
burden represents nothing less than 1.72% of DALYs (Disability-Adjusted
Life Years), and despite this, and the screening recommendations, a recent
questionnaire involving 33653 patients that had medical interviews, revealed
that less than 5% percent of adults are screened for MDD in the primary care
setting. In our country, INEC (National Institute
of Statistics and Censuses, English translation) data reveal that in 2015, 2088
people were attended for depressive
mood disorders in health care establishments, from which 1339 were women and 749 were men. Regarding suicide,
1073 people took their lives in 2015, being men the most affected with
807 cases of suicide. This aspect becomes even more relevant due to the crisis
caused by Quarantine Time. At present, there are no current data about
depression in our country, the present cross-sectional study seeks the
prevalence of depression during quarantine due to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, and its
associated factors. In Ecuador, we do not count on up-to-date data about the
most significant risk factors for MDD, and neither with the current prevalence
in the setting of this event of great magnitude. Thus, with this
cross-sectional study, we aim to estimate the
prevalence of MDD and its associated factors at the time of the COVID-19
pandemic. Method: The minimum representative sample size was at least
384 people; this data was obtained with Epi Info 7 STATCALC. The questionnaires
were designed in the PHQ-9 format, the validated and most widely used tool for
Major Depression Disease, taking 14 or more for depression as the cut-off point;
we use this cutoff because it is more appropriate for epidemiological studies,
the reason why we reject the traditional cut-off of > 9 points. Results: The prevalence of depression in our study is 37.4%, also two protective factors were found, those who
have a stable job p < 0.05; OR
0.567 with IC (0.36 - 0.88), and the fact be male (p < 0.05); OR 0.836 (IC 0.730 - 0.957) as protective factors for depression. Conclusion: The findings of this study suggest that the prevalence of depression
in our setting is higher than reported in
the literature as well as it is greater when compared to other countries
such as the United States or Brazil. A notable association that we found in
this study as a protective factor against depression was having a stable job
during this quarantine period and those who do not have it are more likely to
be predisposed to depression.