The Association between Depressive Symptoms and Physical Diseases in Switzerland: A Cross-Sectional General Population Study

Abstract

Objective: To estimate the association between depressive symptoms and physical diseases in Switzerland, as respective findings might inform about future estimates of mental and physical health care costs.Methods: A population-based study, using data from the Swiss Health Survey collected by computer-assisted telephone interviews and additional written questionnaires during the year 2007 (n = 18,760) in Switzerland. The multistage stratified random sample included subjects aged 15 years and older, living in a private Swiss household with a telephone connection. Complete data were available for 14,348 subjects (51% of all subjects reached by telephone). Logistic regression analyses were used to estimate the associations between depressive symptoms and any physical disease, or a specific physical disease out of 13 non-communicable physical diseases assessed with a self-report checklist on common physical diseases. Analyses were adjusted for sex, age, education, occupation, and household income.Results: In the adjusted models, depressive symptoms were associated with arthrosis and arthritis [Odds Ratio (OR) = 1.79, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.28-2.50] and any physical disease (OR = 1.67, 95% CI = 1.33-2.10) after controlling for multiple testing.Conclusion: Our findings contribute to a better understanding of the comorbidity of depressive symptoms and arthrosis and arthritis in Switzerland and might have implications for more precise future estimates of mental and physical health care costs.

Chronology of Onset of Mental Disorders and Physical Diseases in Mental-Physical Comorbidity - A National Representative Survey of Adolescents

“…Our results contribute to previous findings on mental-physical comorbidity mostly resulting from association studies in clinical or population-based samples in adults and documenting comprising relationships between mental disorders and physical diseases [ 3 , 5 , 6 ], including the comorbidity patterns observed in the present study [ 65 – 70 ]. However, as yet, there has been no evidence suggesting a link between substance use disorders and allergies [ 71 ], and even though comorbidity between epilepsy and mental disorders has been described in children [ 28 , 30 ], epidemiological data on the co-occurrence of epilepsy and eating disorders are lacking.…”

The relationship between multiple chronic diseases and depressive symptoms among middle-aged and elderly populations: results of a 2009 korean community health survey of 156,747 participants

“…Previous studies have reported an association between higher levels of depression and the presence of MCDs [ 10 , 11 , 15 , 17 , 19 ]. For example, the results from a US study conducted through telephone interviews indicated that multiple chronic conditions, particularly pulmonary diseases, increased the risk of depression [ 15 ].…”

“…The prevalence of MCDs and the management of these conditions has become an important public health issue [ 13 – 16 ]. Up to date, several studies have investigated the impact of MCDs on depression, as well as the relationship between specific chronic diseases and depression [ 3 , 15 , 17 , 18 ]. However, few studies have targeted middle-aged or younger populations compared with elderly populations [ 1 , 10 , 19 , 20 ].…”

Factors associated with health-related quality of life among family caregivers of disabled older adults

“…The most likely reason for this is that chronic diseases cause the individual to lose physical strength and vigor. Physical diseases also resulted in depressive symptoms [ 22 , 23 ] and generally contributed to the decline of physical and MH. We found, as have other investigators in previous studies, [ 21 , 24 , 25 ] that when caregivers’ income increased, their physical and mental QOL also improved.…”