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Bulgaria has second-lowest rate of chronic depression in EU – Eurostat

Tuesday, Oct 16, 2018

Bulgaria has the second-lowest rate of chronic depression in the European Union, going by self-assessment of those surveyed, according to figures released by statistics agency Eurostat on October 10 to mark World Mental Health Day.

The proportion of people in Bulgaria reporting depression was 3.2 per cent in Bulgaria. The proportion among Bulgarian men was 2.1 per cent and among women 4.2 per cent.

The lowest was in Bulgaria’s northern neighbour Romania, at 1.5 per cent. The proportion among men was one per cent and among women two per cent.

Eurostat said that in 2014, seven per cent of the EU population reported having chronic depression.

Ireland had the highest share of its population reporting chronic depression (12 per cent) and double-digit shares were also recorded in Portugal, Germany and Finland.

The proportion of people reporting depression was less than four per cent in the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Bulgaria and Romania.

The proportion of people who had depressive disorders was higher for women than for men in each of the EU member states.

The share of women reporting chronic depression peaked in Portugal at 17 per cent, which contributed towards Portugal recording the largest gender gap (as the share of Portuguese women reporting chronic depression was 11 percentage points higher than the corresponding share for Portuguese men). Gaps of at least five percentage points were also recorded in Spain, Latvia and Sweden.

The figures on chronic depression are from the second wave of the European Health Interview Survey (EHIS), which was conducted between 2013 and 2015 and covered people aged 15 and over, Eurostat said.

The survey included questions on self-assessment of an individual’s health and data on chronic diseases which occurred during the previous 12 months. The next wave of the survey will be conducted in 2019, the EU statistics agency said.

Source: www.sofiaglobe.com