A SURVEY OF DEPRESSIVE SYMPTOMS AMONG VIETNAMESE-AMERICAN MEN IN 3 LOCALES - PREVALENCE AND CORRELATES

Vietnamese are one of the fastest growing ethnic minority groups in th e United States. The purpose of this study was to determine the preval ence and correlates of high depression scores among Vietnamese men in three locales. Computer assisted telephone interviews were conducted w ith adult Vietnamese men in San Francisco/Alameda Counties, Santa Clar a County, and the city of Houston. Telephone numbers of households wit h Vietnamese surnames were chosen randomly from area telephone books. Depression was assessed using a previously validated Vietnamese langua ge depression screening instrument with 86% sensitivity and 96% specif icity for major depression. Between 8.2% and 9.8% of the men scored ab ove the cut-off. Logistic regression analysis revealed that men who we re the least proficient in English, poorer, unemployed or disabled, ve terans, and those living in Houston were more likely to have a high de pression score. Based on the characteristics of the screening instrume nt, rates of clinical depression among Vietnamese men may be modestly higher than rates for men in the general population. However, high-ris k subgroups identified by our analyses may suffer from substantially h igher rates of clinical depression. To our knowledge, ours is the firs t study to show that community context or locale is an independent pre dictor of high depressive symptoms in this population. These findings have important implications for prevention and intervention approaches to depression among Vietnamese men.