Health Service Use Among Persons With Self-Reported Depression: A Longitudinal Analysis of 7,164 Women
Section snippets
Health service use among persons with depressive symptoms
Although effective treatments for depression have long been available, previous studies have indicated that this condition tends to be seriously underdiagnosed and undertreated (Economic Working Group Advisory Board, 2005, Wang et al., 2005). The ALSWH discovered that 60% of younger women who reported a diagnosis of depression had no claims in the government-subsidized Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme for any antidepressant medication in 2005, and 40% had no claims at any time during the period
Sample
This research was conducted as part of the ALSWH, which was designed to investigate multiple factors affecting the health and well-being of women over a 20-year period. Relevant ethical approval was gained from the Human Ethics Committee at the University of Queensland and University of Newcastle, Australia. Women in three age groups (young, 18–23; mid-age 45–50; and older, 70–75 years) were randomly selected from the national Medicare database (Brown et al., 1998). The focus of this study is
Results
Depression status in this study was defined by self-report to a single question in the ALSWH survey. There were 7,164 women who answered the question regarding depression in Survey 4 (2006) and the prevalence of self-reported depression at this time point was 34%. The percentage of women who sought help for their depression was 10.5% (n = 749). The analyses were restricted to the two most recent ALSWH surveys (2003 and 2006). Table 1, Table 2, Table 3 summarized the findings of the 2006 survey,
Discussion
A number of design features of our study provide strength to our data and analysis. In addition to providing longitudinal analysis and examining the use of a broad range of treatment and provider options available, one major strength of our study is the examination of data from a large nationally representative sample of women.
The findings of this study confirm the results of previous research indicating that depression is a disorder that is seriously underreported and undertreated (Economic
Conclusion
This article reports on findings of a longitudinal study on patterns of health service consumption among young women with self-reported depression. The study highlights that only a small proportion of women with self-reported depression had sought professional assistance for their problem. It also reveals that many women with self-reported depression used CAM alongside or as a complement to conventional health care service. In particular, young women who did not seek help for their depression
Acknowledgment
The research on which this article was based was conducted as part of the ALSWH, which is funded by the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing (DOHA). We are grateful to the DOHA for funding and to the women who provided the survey data.
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2018, Complementary Therapies in Clinical PracticeCitation Excerpt :There is evidence suggesting that naturopathic consultations are sought to prevent cancer [24], to support cancer treatment [25–27], and amid palliative care [28,29]. Women also consult naturopaths for reproductive health [30,31], during pregnancy [32,33], to alleviate depression [34], and to address menopausal symptoms [35,36]. Naturopaths also see patients with chronic conditions such as diabetes [37], cardiovascular diseases [38], ankylosing spondylitis [39], osteoporosis [40], and skin conditions [41].
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2015, Complementary Therapies in MedicineCitation Excerpt :Numerous large scale surveys have identified CAM as increasing in popularity in North America, Australia and Europe7,10,16,28 and such trends have generated much interest among health professionals and policy-makers.21,34 Previous research has consistently identified women as core consumers of CAM2,13,19 and findings indicate that the use of CAM is common with regards to a number of women’s health issues including pregnancy,4,20,26 menopause,15,40 breast cancer32 and depression.12,43 In Australia, research has identified CAM use as substantial for both young (aged 18–23) and mid-age (aged 45–50) women.9,39