Almost one in seven bundesburgers who took part in germany’s rough health study nako had already seen a doctor because of depression.
This is one of the first results of the long-term population study presented today in berlin. 15 percent of the first 100 or so.000 participants reported being diagnosed with depression in the course of their lives. The study also shows that heart disease is not a man’s thing, but can also affect women even in young and middle age, nako board chairwoman annette peters told the deutsche presse-agentur.
It was also remarkable how many people felt disturbed by traffic alarms at night. According to the study, more than a quarter of the respondents (27 percent) felt somewhat annoyed by the traffic alarm when the window was open, and another ten percent felt strongly or very strongly disturbed by it. In the future, nako researchers want to take a closer look at the effects of noise on health, with a view to high blood pressure, among other things.
Nako stands for national cohort. The health study of adults between 20 and 69 years of age is the largest of its kind in germany, according to its organizers. It started in 2014 and is expected to reach a total of 200.000 randomly selected participants run for about 20 to 30 years. Results are only available for the first 100.000 participants before.
"The initial results of the nako study confirm that depression is a common illness," says ulrich hegerl, chief executive officer of the german depression aid foundation. This had been shown before by other rough german health studies in a similar rough order. "But this does not mean that the number of illnesses is increasing. People get more help today and doctors recognize depression better. Many people have become more aware of the disease," he said. It has only been more hidden than other complaints for a long time. "And there is still a lot of clearing up to do."
Nako chief peters confirmed that this frequency was to be expected with depressions. "From the study, however, you can see how big the problem is." out of 100.000 respondents gave 10.282 women and 4881 men report having been diagnosed with depression in the past.
A total of two percent of the participants surveyed reported having suffered one or more physician-diagnosed heart attacks. The disease was more common in men (3.5 percent) than in women (0.8 percent). In contrast, cardiac arrhythmias were diagnosed with similar frequency by doctors in men (10.1 percent) and women (10.4 percent).
"We want to better understand public diseases such as cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases so that we can fight them more effectively," said federal research minister anja karliczek (CDU). "We were able to learn, for example, how our environment and our way of life influence certain diseases. Many generations will benefit from the wealth of data in this health study."
Nako participants are comprehensively examined according to uniform criteria and questioned about their lifestyle habits. At fixed intervals, specialized centers invite these volunteers again. According to nako, the research budget for the study is around 256 million euros for the first ten years.