Prevalence and influencing factors of depressive symptoms in persons with hearing disability in Wuhan

Objective To investigate the prevalence and related factors of depressive symptoms in persons with hearing disability in Wuhan.Methods With multi-stage stratified random cluster sampling method,485 hearing disabled persons were selected and administered with a self-designed socio-demographic questionnaire,the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale(CES-D),and the Revised Eysenck Personality Questionnaire-Short Scale for Chinese(EPQ-RSC).Results The average scores of CES-D,EPQ-RSC psychoticism,extroversion and neuroticism were 25.8±12.0,4.0±2.0,6.3±3.3,and 5.6±3.5,respectively.According to the cut-off scores of CES-D,222,167 and 54 subjects were identified as depression,absolute depression and severe depression,wtih corresponding prevalences(95% confidence interval) of 45.8%(41.3%-50.2%),34.4%(30.2%-38.7%),and 11.1%(8.3%-13.9%),respectively.The risk factors for depression were with education period of ≤9 years(odds ratioOR=3.39),having first and second degree of disability(OR=1.88),without hearing aids(OR=1.78),with a EPQ-RSC extroversion score of ≤6(OR=2.20),and having a neuroticism score of >6(OR=4.82).Conclusion There are high prevalence rates of depressive symptoms in hearing disabilied persons in Wuhan.Low literacy,higher degree of disability,lack of hearing aids and personality traits of introversion and emotional unstablility might increase the risk of depression among hearing disabled people.