Depression spells doom: Alienating one from the environment and good health

Pages: 323-326
Shonali Sud, Akshita Sharma and Astha Badalia (Department of Psychology, St. Bedes College, Shimla, H.P.)

The effect of environment and depression on health on N=30, (n=18, adults between 16-23 years and n=12, children between 9-15 years) subjects (bankers, administrators, academics and students) was undertaken in the urban areas of Shimla. Subjects responded to items on the Environment Awareness Scale (EAS-Cito-Arnhem,1994), depression (Goldberg Depression Questionnaire, Goldberg, 1993) and health habits (Nutrition and Exercise habits-Hindi, Chauhan & Sud, 2005), along with personal interviews for feedback regarding depression and its effect on health and disease. It was hypothesized, that as depression increases, health deteriorates, that youth between 16 and 23 years will show more depression as compared to children within the age 9 to 15 years and gender differences will emerge in terms of depression and health, regardless of age. Results support most of the hypotheses and indicate that due to depression there was a decrease in health habits although subjects irrespective of age and gender were conscious about protecting their environment. Furthermore it was observed that nutrition is an age/gender related factor. Interestingly, females showed significantly less concern for health, and it was seen that the older the person, the better were his nutrition and exercise habits. Depression appeared to be predominating in all subjects, environment awareness was prevalent and nutrition varied with age and gender. Exercise was not a popular activity among the subjects regardless of age and gender. More cross-sectional evidence is necessary on environment and exercise habits in curbing depression on larger samples and age groups, across cross sections of the Indian society