37.9% of Chinese people show symptoms of depression and 4.1% are severely depressed according to a new study in China Economic Review. The study was jointly published by Xia Qiru, an economics professor at the Global Health Research Center at Duke Kunshan University and with support from researchers from Peking University and Columbia University.
“We estimate that 390 million people in China show symptoms of depression, which includes 200 million men and 190 million women. 42 million adults have severe depression, which is an astonishing number. I expected only 2-3% to have severe depression,” said Professor Xie in an interview on Wednesday.
“Mental illness can be divided into five categories: anxiety disorders, mood disorders, schizophrenia and psychotic disorders, dementia, and eating disorders. Our investigation is based on the first two categories,” said Professor Xie.
Peking University researchers investigated subjects in a total of 25 provinces and cities. The main samples were taken from five provinces and cities: Liaoning, Henan, Gansu, Guangdong, and Shanghai. 1,600 households were surveyed in each city. In the second sample, 8000 households from 20 provinces were surveyed. The survey samples a total of 16,000 households. Each household had at least two individuals, so more than 30,000 people were surveyed.
Source: thepaper.cn
Warning：The use of any news and articles published on eChinacities.com without written permission from eChinacities.com constitutes copyright infringement, and legal action can be taken.
Keywords: China survey depression China depression
All comments are subject to moderation by eChinacities.com staff. Because we wish to encourage healthy and productive dialogue we ask that all comments remain polite, free of profanity or name calling, and relevant to the original post and subsequent discussion. Comments will not be deleted because of the viewpoints they express, only if the mode of expression itself is inappropriate.
Please login to add a comment. Click here to login immediately.
I knew it, many Chinese suffer from mental illness, and not only depression but also psychosis and retardation. Hence the awkward and totally asocial behavior toward other people, especially when these are Foreigners.
May 23, 2016 18:11 Report Abuse
What a sorry state of affairs in the "economic powerhouse of the 21st century". Wrong priorities!
May 22, 2016 18:04 Report Abuse
Would like to see a follow up study investigating the causes
May 21, 2016 16:13 Report Abuse
You don't need a study to find out the causes. Extreme pressure to succeed educationally being exerted on children by parents. Long work hours with few holidays coupled with low pay for workers. Societal pressure on women to marry quickly and have children. Societal pressure on men to be an economically viable candidate for being a husband, for some men simply unobtainable. Homosexuality still a social taboo and actively discouraged by government. A populace that actively avoids sunshine and thus suffers from mass vitamin D deficiency, a known cause of depression. You don't have to be a scientist to figure this one out.
May 22, 2016 09:05 Report Abuse
Sign up with
Google
(
(