Self-reported depressive symptoms among male adolescents in the UAE

الملخص EN

To test the feasibility of screening for depression in teenagers, self-reports of depressive symptoms were obtained from a community sample of teenage boys in al ain city, uae.

the sample, which consisted of 446 boys provided self-reports using a translated version ofthe mood and feelings questionnaire.

utilising various cut-off points the sample reported significant depressive symptoms varying between 9.9% and 30.7%.

these rates were comparable to, or slightly higher than those reported elsewhere in the world.

the most recent official census statistics show that young people under the age of 18 form the largest group in the population ofthe uae.

the population ofthe uae in 1994 was 2.3 million, of which 34% were under the age of 15 and 57% were under the age of 45.

males represent just under 60% of the population.

expatriates consist of the total population1.

in an attempt to plan the development of psychiatric services for young people, including adolescents, we needed to obtain an idea ofthe extent ofa number of psychiatric conditions among this population.

depression among young people had a very high priority, but little has been done to estimate the prevalence of depression in community samples of young people (particularly boys) in the uae or the arabian gulf area.

however there are a couple of exceptions.

a sample of female secondary school students in al ain city, united arab emirates was screened using the depression self-rating scale2 and a 5-item dysfunction related scale to estimate the prevalence of significant symptoms of depression, and their personal and social concomitants.

of 505 female students aged between 13 and 18 years, 79 (15.6%) scored above a cut-off point of 14 and reported depressive symptoms which were associated with significant personal dysfunction3.

in another study the prevalence of depression among 1981 middle-school students (995 boys and 986 girls) in kuwait was estimated to be 3.7% in boys and 4.8% in girls4.

the ideal method to estimate the prevalence of depression in a community is a two-stage design (screening followed by interviews of samples of high scorers and low scorers).

however, this was not the objective of this study.

the primary objective trial to answer a basic question.

does depression among adolescents in this community justify investigating? for this reason it was decided to carry out a screening exercise.

this paper reports the main findings of that investigation