What do you do for a living? And what's your lifestyle like? Either, or both, could predict whether you're likely to be depressed.
That's according to a study from MentalHelp.net, "Depression Among Demographics and Professions," which examined data from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to uncover the prevalence of depression across age groups, work forces and other demographics.
Industries most affected by depression covered a broad spectrum, although they had some factors in common — including "often thankless jobs in which workers experience some of the best (and worst) of society on a daily basis."
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Public and private transportation was at the top of the list, with a depression rate of 16.2 percent, followed by real estate at 15.7 percent, social services at 14.6 percent, manufacturing or production at 14.3 percent and personal services, also at 14.3 percent.
The other fields in the top 10 with the highest rates of depression were legal services, at 13.4 percent; environmental administration and waste services, at 13.4 percent; organization and association administration, at 13.3 percent; security and commodity brokers, at 12.6 percent; and print and publishing, at 12.4 percent.
Lifestyle factors that played heavily into depression rates were health (those with fair/poor health had a rate of 15.5 percent); health insurance (those covered just by Medicaid or CHIP were depressed at a rate of 12 percent); those below poverty level, at 10.4 percent; education — those with some college, interestingly, had a higher depression rate, at 7.6 percent, than those who only graduated high school, at 6.5 percent; those who only had some high school were depressed at a rate of 7.1 percent — region, with those in the Midwest and Northeast tied as the most depressed at 6.9 percent; and location type, with folks living in rural areas more depressed, at 7.2 percent, than those in either small (6.9 percent) or large (6.3 percent) metropolitan areas.
Among its conclusions, the study found that industries with very little physical activity involved suffered from high rates of depression, and that while people in some areas may be more subject to major depression, there is no "safe place" where people are relatively immune to its symptoms.
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