Association between Major Depressive Disorder and Chronic Diseases: a cross-sectional analysis in the Longitudinal Study of Adult Health (ELSA) - Brazil

• Grant number: 21/02241-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: September 01, 2021
• End date: January 31, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Medicine - Psychiatry
• Principal Investigator: Andre Russowsky Brunoni
• Grantee: Lívia Vita Rodrigues
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Medicina (FM). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Countries in the Low-or-Middle-Income Countries (LMIC) group have faced drastic changes in the possibilities of their population's quality of life in recent years. Consequently, there was an increase in life expectancy in these countries, and, consequently, in the prevalence of chronic comorbidities. Thus, there is evidence in the literature of a probable association between these factors within the context of LMICs. Therefore, the impact of depressive disorders on the incidence of chronic diseases is still poorly understood, as well as the inverse. The few number of studies that explore this correlation have only taken place in the contexts of the socioeconomically favored countries. With this in mind, this study aims to carry out a cross-sectional study to investigate the capacity of association between the development of chronic diseases and depressive symptoms in an LMIC population, mainly due to the fact that the prevalence of depressive disorders is higher among these populations. The study will be based on the first (2008-2010) wave of the Longitudinal Study on Adult Health (ELSA-Brasil), a multicentric cohort applied to 15.105 Brazilian public servants. The outcome variables are depressive episodes, anxiety disorders and common mental disorders, and the exposure variable will be the number of chronic diseases. Multiple logistic regressions will be conducted, with adjustment for sociodemographic covariates and risk factors for cardiovascular diseases. Such models seek to evaluate the relationship between such conditions that, as the literature points out, present similar physiopathological processes. As follows, we hope to obtain results that positively point to the association of these factors, within this context of the LMICs.