title: Disparate rates of new-onset depression during the menopausal transition in 2 community-based populations: real, or really wrong?
abstract: This study took place in eastern Massachusetts and included respondents from the Harvard Study of Moods and Cycles Cohort 1, enrolled between 1995 and 1997, and the Harvard Study of Moods and Cycles Cohort 2, enrolled between 2005 and 2009. In prospectively assessing rates of new-onset depression in 2 populations of late-reproductive-aged women with no Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (Fourth Edition) lifetime history of depression, we were surprised to find far lower rates of depression in the population with greater racial diversity and lower socioeconomic status, contrary to what had been reported in the scientific literature. To better understand why these disparate results occurred, we assessed confounding and outcome misclassification as potential explanations for the discrepancy. After determining that these were unlikely explanations for the findings, we explored 2 potential sources of selection bias: one induced by self-referral of healthy participants into the study and the other induced by the design of the study itself. We concluded that both types of selection bias were likely to have occurred in this study and could account for the observed difference in rates.
authors.affiliation: Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, 1300 South Second Street, Suite 300, Minneapolis, MN 55454, USA. harlow@umn.edu
authors.forename: Bernard L
authors.initials: BL
authors.lastname: Harlow
authors.forename: Richard F
authors.initials: RF
authors.lastname: MacLehose
authors.forename: Derek J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Smolenski
authors.forename: Claudio N
authors.initials: CN
authors.lastname: Soares
authors.forename: Michael W
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Otto
authors.forename: Hadine
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Joffe
authors.forename: Lee S
authors.initials: LS
authors.lastname: Cohen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D015331:Cohort Studies; D015986:Confounding Factors, Epidemiologic; D003863:Depression / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008404:Massachusetts / Q000453:epidemiology; D008593:Menopause / Q000523:psychology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D015337:Multicenter Studies as Topic; D015983:Selection Bias
keywords: bias; depression; prospective studies