Abstract

MANTILLA MENDOZA, Laura Fernanda; SABALZA PEINADO, Liliana del Pilar; DIAZ MARTINEZ, Luis Alfonso  and  CAMPO-ARIAS, Adalberto. Prevalence of Depressive Symptoms in School Boys and Girls in Bucaramanga, Colombia . rev.colomb.psiquiatr. [online]. 2004, vol.33, n.2, pp.163-171. ISSN 0034-7450.

Background: Current investigations report a high prevalence of depressive disorders among children. However, the prevalence is not known in Colombian children. Objective: To establish depressive symptom prevalence among school children between the ages of 8 and 11 in Bucaramanga , Colombia . Method: In a transversal study, depressive symptoms were measured in a representative sample from a public school (low socioeconomic status) and a private school (high socio-economic status) using The Children Depression Inventory, Short Form (CDI-S). Cut-off point for depressive disorders was seven. Results: Two hundred and thirty nine children from grades third through fifth were evaluated. Mean age was 9.5. 59% were males and 55.2% came from the public school. Twenty-one children were depressed (9.2%), thirteen girls and nine boys. Association with older age (p = 0.0001), female gender (p = 0.004), and lower school level (p = 0.0001) was found. No relation to socioeconomic status was observed. Conclusions: Depressive symptom prevalence among scholars in Bucaramanga is high. Depressive symptoms were associated with older age, female gender and lower grade.. More attention to and investigation in this population is needed.

Keywords : depressive symptoms; prevalence; children; scholars.