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Seasonal affective disorders among rural Finns and Lapps
Author(s) -
Saarijärvi S.,
Lauerma H.,
Helenius H.,
Saarilehto S.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
acta psychiatrica scandinavica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.849
H-Index - 146
eISSN - 1600-0447
pISSN - 0001-690X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0447.1999.tb07206.x
Subject(s) - demography , rural population , medicine , psychology , geography , population , sociology
Saarijärvi S, Lauerma H, Helenius H, Saarilehto S. Seasonal affective disorders among rural Finns and Lapps. We investigated the prevalence of seasonal affective disorder (SAD) and subsyndromal SAD (S‐SAD) in rural populations in south‐western and northern Finland by using the Seasonal Pattern Assessment Questionnaire (SPAQ). A total of 1710 SPAQs were analysed. The prevalences of overall SAD and S‐SAD were 12.0% and 27.1%, respectively. Winter SAD (W‐SAD) was the most common type, with prevalences of 9.5%, for W‐SAD and 18.4% for W‐S‐SAD. The prevalences of overall and winter SAD did not differ between Finns living in northern and south‐western Finland. Among the Lapps, W‐SAD cases were less frequent than among the Finns in Lapland. Overall seasonality correlated significantly with female gender, high body mass index, high level of education and young age.