Prevalence of depression and its associated sociodemographic factors among Iranian female adolescents in secondary schools

Background Across the globe, depression is a common psychiatric disorder and is the main cause of disability among adolescents. To this end, this study was conducted to screen for the prevalence of depression among secondary school female students in the city of Hamadan, in western Iran. Methods In this cross-sectional study, a total of 670 secondary school female students, within the age range of 15–18 years were investigated using multistage random sampling method. Moreover, the Persian version of Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) and a researcher-designed questionnaire containing demographic variables were employed as research instruments. Analyses of the findings were made using SPSS version 16 software followed by stratified logistic regression model, which was performed for correlation analysis. Results The mean (standard deviation) age of students was 16.2 (0.68) years. The prevalence of severe depression in female students estimated by the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) was equal to 52.6%. A statistically significant relationship was also observed to exist between prevalence of depression and type of school (P