Gender Differences in Depressive Disorder Among Civil Servants of Public Service Under Government of Nepal

Abstract

This study aims to measure prevalence of depression among civil servants of public service in central Nepal from gender perspectives. Zung Depression Scale was used to measure the depression among randomly selected 161 civil servants employed in public service under government of Nepal in Kathmandu and Chitwan districts. Three-fourth of the respondents (74.5%) were normal, 19.3% had minimal to mild depression, 4.3% had moderate to marked depression, and 1.9% had severe to extreme depression. Among women, 4.2% had severe to extreme depression, while 29.2% had minimal to mild depression and 66.7% were normal. Among men, 1.5% had severe to extreme depression, 5.1% had moderate to marked depression, 17.5% had minimal to mild depression and 75.9% were normal. Women were at 1.58 times higher risk of depression than that of men (0.56<OR>4.37). From high prevalence of depression among the civil servants of public service, it is apparent that mental health problem needs immediate attention in workplace. As women workers were more likely to have severe to extreme form of depression, appropriate gender-friendly workplace policies and strategies should be designed to address the mental health of public service providers in Nepal.The study subjects were the employee in the public sector, i.e. governmental sector of Nepal, selected from different services at first level of sampling. In second level of sampling, a combination of study subjects from different levels of gazetted and non-gazetted services within those services were ensured. Considering 75209 employees as per the record of Nijamati

Gender Differences in the Prevalence of Depression among the Working Population of Nepal

“…Depression is highly prevalent in Nepal accounting for the second highest rate of “disability adjusted life years” in the world [ 5 ]. However, we have insufficient data regarding the prevalence of depression in the Nepalese working population [ 6 , 7 ]. Employed people often hide depression due to the presumption that the prejudice surrounding depression may cost them their job.…”