Some causes of depression in rural Pakistani women

Abstract

This study investigates the some causes of depression in Rural Pakistan women. The study uses data from the Pakistan Rural Household Survey (2004) and differs from other studies in that this analysis pinpoints the social and economic factors that affect women’s mental health in Pakistan. Using Bivariate analysis, the study shows that the highest frequency of depressed women occurs in the rural area of Punjab. It is also evident that women (aged 30 years and above) are more likely to suffer from depression and that education plays an important role in reducing mental illness in Pakistan. Multivariate analysis shows that the factors affecting women’s depression include domestic abuse, poverty, close exchange marriages, women having only daughter and joint family system. On the other hand, education and paid work are the only variables which have been found to have a negative correlation with depression amongst women