The relationship of gender perception and depression in female HEALTH workers

Depression is a common mental illness among female healthcare professionals, and it is thought that gender perception may be effective in the development of depression. The aim of this study is to determine the relationship between gender perception and depression in female health workers and related factors. This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted at Bursa Uludağ University Health Application and Research Center between November 2021 and May 2022. The universe of the study consists of all female health workers (2116 people) in this institution and 1502 people (%70,9) participated in the study. General information form, Gender Perception Scale and Epidemiological Research Center Depression Scale (CES-D) were used as data collection tools. Descriptive statistics, chi-square, Kruskal-Wallis, Man-Whitney U, Student-t, Anova and logistic regression tests were used in the analysis of the data. Analyzes were made using the SPSS 23.0 program and the level of significance was accepted as p<0.05. The mean age of the participants is 37.19, 74.6% of them have undergraduate or higher education level and 65.5% of them are married. The mean TCAS score is 101.34 (95% CI: 100.62-102.06). Education level, father's education level, spouse's education level, knowledge about of gender, and thinking that there is gender inequality in the society are predictors of gender perception. The mean CES-D score of the participants was 20.05 (95% CI: 19.52-20.57), and the ownership of the residence, weekly working hours, previous diagnosis of depression, diagnosis of psychiatric illness in family, perception of health, unrelated parent characteristics, gender inequality in the family in which he grew up and lived are predictive variables for depression. A negative and weak correlation was found between TCA-S and CES-D scores. It is thought that every step taken to ensure gender equality will have a protective and curative effect on women's mental health. Keywords: gender, depression