الفهرس 
Introduction
Aims of the StudyOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Depression is the most frequently encountered mental health problem affecting woman’s health(44). Depressed person encountered several adverse effects on both mental and physical health with increase in the risk of comorbid chronic health conditions (174). Although depressed individuals have low quality of life and loss of social and working functions, few of them seek help for their symptoms(41).
This study was conducted on 400 ever married females in two primary health care centers at Dairut city. The study aimed to determine the frequency of depressive symptoms as well as its correlates among the studied cohort. A cross sectional study design was adopted using purposive sampling technique for recruitment of the studied participants.
The study tools were:
1. Interview semi-structured questionnaire was used which included; Socio-demographic characteristics, obstetric history, self-reported health status, measurement of family wealth by using Family Affluence Scale (FAS), Patient Health Questionnaire-9 scale (PHQ-9) was used to assess presence of depressive symptoms. For married females, inquires about husband data, experience for husband violence, and ENRICH Marital Satisfaction Scale to measure marital satisfaction.
2. Anthropometric measurements were assessed as body weight, height and body mass index was calculated.
Summary of the results:
• Personal and demographic characters:
Nearly 80% of the studied sample aged less than 40 years. Rural residents represented 54% of studied females. Married females formed the majority of participant (93%). About one quarter of the studied females were illiterate/ read and write while 43% have secondary education. Housewives represented 72% of the sample. Obesity was detected in 33% of the studied females.
As regards the husband’s personal characteristics, their age ranged from 21 to 65 years. About three quarters (72%) of them aged from 30- 49 years. The majority of husbands of the studied females (95%) had no other wives.
• Experience of violence from husband:
Husband’s physical and verbal violence were experienced by nearly one quarter (27%) of the studied females. Addiction of the husband was reported by 10% of participants. Also, about 43% of the studied females reported that they fear from their current husband.
• Obstetric history and marital variables:
About three fourths (74%) of the studied participants had got pregnant for three times or more. Nearly (70%) had both male and female children. Presence of previous abortion and still birth were reported by 29.5 % and 11.8 %, respectively.
Among currently married females, the mean age at first marriage was 20.4 ± 4.1 years while the mean of duration of current marriage was 12 ± 8.1 years. Nearly six percent were currently pregnant.
• Family characteristics and self-reported health status:
Nearly 70 % of the studied females were living in nuclear family. Moreover, about 4% had family history of mental illness, and nearly 15% reported death occurrence in family during the last 3 months. Noticeably, having chronic disease and mental illness was self-reported in 12% and 3.8% of the sample, respectively.
• Socio-economic levels using Family Affluence Scale (FAS):
Mean score of the FAS was 1.94 ± 1.3 with a median of 1.5 (0-7). Low class level represented about three fourths of the study participants (74.5%), while the high level constituted less than 3%.
• Depressive symptoms classification using PHQ-9 scale:
The mean PHQ-9 score among the studied respondents was 7.54 ± 4.9, while the median was 7 (4 - 11). About one-third (32%) of the sample was identified as having probable depressive symptoms according to PHQ-9 cutoff of 9 points. while those detected with no or minimal depressive symptoms were 68%.
• Relationship between depressive symptoms and personal characteristics of the studied subjects:
Regarding the association of probable depressive symptom by pHQ-9 with personal characteristics of studied women; depressive symptoms was significantly related with age and unmarried status (P=0.007, P=0.005, respectively). On the other hand, women’s residence, education, occupation and obesity were not significantly associated with depressive symptoms. (P ≥ 0.05)
• Association of depressive symptoms among current married females with husbands’ characteristics:
It was found that those with depressive symptoms had significantly older husbands (p value =0.015). The mean husband age was 39.9 ± 9.4 years among depressed women compared with those without depressive symptoms (37.4 ± 8.7). Likewise, current pregnancy status was significantly associated with depressive symptoms (P value =0.005).
Nevertheless, husband’s education, age at current marriage, marriage duration and husband marriage from other wives were not statistically significantly associated with depressive symptoms (P ≥ 0.05).
• Depressive symptoms and experience of husband violence:
Depressive symptoms were statistically significantly associated with physical or verbal violence, husband addiction and fear perception from husband (p value < 0.05).
• Depressive symptoms and obstetric history:
No statistical significant associations were detected between depressive symptoms and any variable of obstetric history either number of pregnancy, experiencing previous abortion, type of living children, age of the last child, having still birth or child with congenital anomalies (p -value ≥ 0.05).
• Depressive symptoms and family characteristics:
There was statistically significant associations between depressive symptoms and living in nuclear family (p-value = 0.036). Also, depressive symptoms were statistically significantly associated with self-reporting presence of chronic disease and occurrence of death in the family during the last three months (p-value = 0.001).
In contrast, there were no statistically significant associations between depressive symptoms and self-reporting presence of mental illness, family history of mental illness, regular menstrual cycle and women satisfaction on their body weight (p-value ≥ 0.05)
For the SES, there was statistically significantly mild negative correlation between socio-economic score and depressive symptoms among studied subjects (r = - 0.153, p-value = 0.002).
• Depressive symptoms and marital satisfaction among studied currently married females:
Among the studied currently married females, mean level of marital satisfaction score among depressed females was significantly lower (41.1 ± 16.9) than that among non- depressed females (47.9 ± 10.5) (p-value < 0.001). There was statistically significantly mild negative correlation between depressive symptoms and marital satisfaction (r = - 0.203, p-value < 0.001).
• The predictors of depressive symptoms among studied subjects:
Among the studied ever married females, after adjusting for all correlates, there were five predictors of depressive symptoms; older age and weight, extended family type, occurrence of death in the family during last 3 months and low socio-economic score.
Likewise, among currently married females, after adjusting for all correlates, there were five correlates were significantly identified as predictors for having depressive symptoms; older husband, high body weight, extended family type, exposure to husband verbal violence and low scores of marital satisfaction.