title: Risk indicators for depressed mood in youth: Limited association with Aboriginal cultural status.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  There have been too few studies on urban Aboriginal youth to permit inferences about depressed mood in this subgroup. The purpose of the present study was to determine whether Aboriginal cultural status is independently associated with moderate or severe depressed mood in youth after controlling for other covariates, including socioeconomic status.
  
  
  METHODS
  Every student between grades 5 and 8 in the city of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, was asked to complete a questionnaire in February of 2007. Depressed mood was measured with a 12-question depression scale derivative of the 20-question Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Four thousand ninety-three youth participated in the school health survey. For Aboriginal youth, the prevalence rate of moderate or severe depressed mood was 21.6% in comparison with 8.9% for Caucasian youth (rate ratio 2.43; 95% CI 1.92 to 3.08). Aboriginal cultural status was not associated with depressed mood after adjustment for other covariates in the final multivariate model (OR 1.132; 95% CI 0.682 to 1.881). Parental educational status and sex were confounders to the association between Aboriginal cultural status and depressed mood.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The recognition that Aboriginal cultural status is not independently associated with moderate or severe depressed mood in youth after full multivariate adjustment allows policy makers to acknowledge that mental health disparity prevention is possible because the determinants of health (ie, education) are modifiable (in comparison with Aboriginal cultural status).
authors.affiliation: Saskatoon Health Region, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lemstra
authors.forename: Cory
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Neudorf
authors.forename: Johan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mackenbach
authors.forename: Carl
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: D'Arcy
authors.forename: Christina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Scott
authors.forename: Tanis
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kershaw
authors.forename: Ushasri
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Nannapaneni