Self-Rated Health, Demographic Factors and Depressive Symptoms Among Malaysian Adults

Abstract

Introduction: Depression risk has been significantly associated with sociodemographic aspects such as education levels and self-rated health.  The aim was to investigate the relationship of socio-demographic characteristics particularly level of education, and self-rated health on depressive symptoms among Malaysian adults.  Methods: This is a cross-sectional study among Malaysians who aged 16 to 52 years old. Respondents were recruited via social media, using convenience sampling. Sociodemographic questions include education levels and self-rated health among other questions. Depressive symptoms were measured using Beck Depression Inventory-II, Malay version. The data were analysed using Chi- Square Test. Two-Way of ANOVA was utilized to determine the association of education levels and self-rated health on depressive symptoms. Results: Chi-Square indicated that age, level of education, job categories and self-rated health had a significant relationship at p<0.05 with key variables used in this study, presence, and absence of depressive symptoms except for gender, race and marital status. Two-way of ANOVA results revealed a significant interaction between self-rated health, level of education and depressive symptoms (F = 2.711,df=5,p<0.05). Conclusion: Malaysian individuals with low education levels showed depressive symptoms and showed a significant association with low self-rated health, however some of them rated themselves as healthy.  Therefore, the government needs to make health literacy a priority for everyone, particularly for those with low levels of education and individuals who perceived themselves as mentally healthy.