Depression among refugee youth in an outpatient healthcare center-prevalence and associated factors

TY - JOUR

T1 - Depression among refugee youth in an outpatient healthcare center-prevalence and associated factors

AU - Schumacher, Lea

AU - Echterhoff, Jette

AU - Zindler, Areej

AU - Barthel, Dana

N1 - Copyright © 2024 Schumacher, Echterhoff, Zindler and Barthel.

PY - 2024

Y1 - 2024

N2 - BACKGROUND: Due to armed conflict and other crises, many children worldwide have to flee their home country and are, consequently, at a high risk for mental health problems.OBJECTIVE: As the majority of previous research on refugee minors focused on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), we aimed to assess the prevalence and risk factors for depression in a clinical sample of refugee youth.METHODS: Data were collected during the standard diagnostic process in an outpatient refugee clinic in Germany. We assessed the prevalence of depression based on a diagnostic interview and investigated the association between age, gender, duration of flight, accompanying status, number of interpersonal traumatic experiences, residence status, and PTSD diagnosis with a depression diagnosis. More specifically, we conducted a Bayesian logistic regression with these associated factors as predictors and the presence of depression as the outcome. Additionally, we conducted a Bayesian network analysis including all these variables.RESULTS: The majority of the 575 included refugee children were male (n = 423, 73.6%) and, on average, 15.1 years old (SD = 2.69). Nearly half of the children (n = 243, 42.3%) met the diagnostic criteria for depression, of which most also showed a comorbid PTSD diagnosis. We found strong evidence that age, gender, number of traumatic experiences, and a diagnosis of PTSD were related to depression. The network analysis indicated that only age, gender, and PTSD were directly associated to depression. Flight-related factors were only indirectly associated with depression due to their associations with number of traumatic experiences and PTSD diagnosis.CONCLUSION: The high prevalence of depression and its strong associations with PTSD suggest that refugee minors are likely to experience depressive symptoms which might develop from PTSD symptoms. This implies a need for monitoring depressive symptoms in refugee minors, especially when these have a PTSD diagnosis.

AB - BACKGROUND: Due to armed conflict and other crises, many children worldwide have to flee their home country and are, consequently, at a high risk for mental health problems.OBJECTIVE: As the majority of previous research on refugee minors focused on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), we aimed to assess the prevalence and risk factors for depression in a clinical sample of refugee youth.METHODS: Data were collected during the standard diagnostic process in an outpatient refugee clinic in Germany. We assessed the prevalence of depression based on a diagnostic interview and investigated the association between age, gender, duration of flight, accompanying status, number of interpersonal traumatic experiences, residence status, and PTSD diagnosis with a depression diagnosis. More specifically, we conducted a Bayesian logistic regression with these associated factors as predictors and the presence of depression as the outcome. Additionally, we conducted a Bayesian network analysis including all these variables.RESULTS: The majority of the 575 included refugee children were male (n = 423, 73.6%) and, on average, 15.1 years old (SD = 2.69). Nearly half of the children (n = 243, 42.3%) met the diagnostic criteria for depression, of which most also showed a comorbid PTSD diagnosis. We found strong evidence that age, gender, number of traumatic experiences, and a diagnosis of PTSD were related to depression. The network analysis indicated that only age, gender, and PTSD were directly associated to depression. Flight-related factors were only indirectly associated with depression due to their associations with number of traumatic experiences and PTSD diagnosis.CONCLUSION: The high prevalence of depression and its strong associations with PTSD suggest that refugee minors are likely to experience depressive symptoms which might develop from PTSD symptoms. This implies a need for monitoring depressive symptoms in refugee minors, especially when these have a PTSD diagnosis.

U2 - 10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1367799

DO - 10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1367799

M3 - SCORING: Journal article

C2 - 38707619

VL - 15

SP - 1367799

JO - FRONT PSYCHIATRY

JF - FRONT PSYCHIATRY

SN - 1664-0640

ER -