Open University of Catalonia (UOC)
18.6% of adolescents claim to have a low mood, according to research by the inter-university group Epi4Health , participated by the Open University of Catalonia ( UOC ), the Manresa campus of the University of Vic-Central University of Catalonia (UVic). -UCC) and the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB). Based on data from the project led by UManresa, DESKcohort, which studies health and behaviors related to it in thousands of adolescents attending school in central Catalonia, researchers have determined that the prevalence of a low mood has a clear component inequality: it affects 11.6% of boys and 25.1% of girls .
The research, published openly in the Journal of Affective Disorders , was led by Helena González-Casals , professor at UManresa, researcher at UVic-UCC and doctoral student at the UOC in the Health and Psychology program under the direction of Marina Bosque , researcher. principal of the Epi4health group of the UOC Health Sciences Studies , linked to the eHealth Center , and Albert Espelt of the UAB.
"We have confirmed the existence of gender inequalities in mental health among adolescents, with low mood 2.2 times more frequent among girls than among boys, and 36% of this difference is explained by social and health-related behaviors ," explains Dr. Marina Bosque . The research was carried out using data from the DESKcohort project, which is based on a survey on health behaviors that is repeated every two years in public and private institutes in central Catalonia. The program began in the 2019-2020 academic year and collected data from 6,428 adolescents between 12 and 18 years old.
How is the difference explained?
These differences between genders are mainly explained by contextual factors that are also related to mood. The sexual violence suffered by girls plays a very important role in this , but it is also affected by the fact that adolescent girls spend less time doing physical activity than boys (57% do not meet the minimum requirements established by the WHO). Furthermore, being an immigrant, dieting, and smoking tobacco daily were also associated with low mood only in girls, while risky alcohol consumption was only associated with boys.
Regarding the social exposure variables, a greater prevalence of low mood was observed in both boys and girls with a disadvantaged socioeconomic situation . Having lower grades, abusing the mobile phone or suffering bullying are other associated factors that do not seem to have gender differences. At the opposite pole, most of the gender difference in the prevalence of low mood is due to having experienced sexual violence .
Useful to prevent
According to the authors, these results can be useful to do preventive work and detect discomfort and symptoms before they worsen or become chronic and go from a low mood to more severe disorders, such as anxiety or depression. . "Now we can know the current situation regarding the mental health of the adolescent group and see what factors are related to it, and this allows us to think and develop preventive actions aimed at improving the mental health of this group that are much more complete and have a greater impact," says Helena González-Casals .
The researchers argue that, due to the characteristics of the territory, the sample has a lot of variability, since adolescents from cities such as Manresa or Igualada, but also from smaller towns, participate. "Therefore, we can get a rough idea of what is happening in other populations and extrapolate the results of this study to the rest of the Catalan adolescent population ," says González-Casals , warning that in large cities like Barcelona, where there are large differences between neighborhoods and socioeconomic levels, this behavior may be different.
The investigation continues
The data for this research was collected during the 2019-2020 academic year, until the COVID-19 confinement forced the fieldwork to be interrupted. Given that the pandemic seems to have clearly influenced the mental health of adolescents, the Epi4Health team is currently analyzing data from the second wave of the DESKcohort project (collected during the 2021-2022 academic year), to explore in detail what Changes have occurred in the mental health of this group as a result of the pandemic . In addition, we also want to assess whether the urban or rural environment influences it, in order to outline specific actions or even more precise preventive interventions.
Conclusions : The prevalence of low mood varies between sexes, highlighting the importance of developing gender-specific interventions to reduce its incidence in young people, considering the factors associated with this condition. |
