Screening of Depressive Symptoms in a Russian General Population Sample: A Web-based Cross-sectional Study

Web-based screening of depressive symptoms in general non-clinical population can provide better insights into actual prevalence of depressive symptoms and associated risk factors. To study the current prevalence of depressive symptoms in Russian non-clinical population we conducted screening using an online survey based on Depression subscale of Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS-D). The online survey covered 2610 Russian-speaking respondents and included HADS-D, questions about sex, age and presence of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) diagnoses or symptoms in respondents. The proportion of respondents with depressive symptoms, estimated by online HADS-D, was 14.4% (11.5% - at subclinical level, 2.9% - at clinical level). The overall HADS-D score was higher in women (p=0.003), in young individuals under 30 y.o . participants over 42 y.o. (p=0.004) and in individuals with self-reported CVD symptoms (p=0.00002). Linear regression analysis showed that self-reported CVD symptoms increase HADS-D score (p