Investigating the Rate of Depression among Martyrs’ Widows of Shiraz

Degree : Medicine
Supervisor : Gholam Reza Deh Bozorghi

Among different causes of depression, death of husband is the most important one. The person who is bereft of a dear member of the family experiences signs that are very similar to depression disorders and this research is intended to calculate the degree of depression among martyrs’ wives of Shiraz and investigate its relation with age, number of the children, literacy level, employment condition, remarriage, divorce and the years passed after the death of the husband…. It also intends to find the background of psychological illnesses among their family.
The research methodology is causative _ comparative and the community of research includes the martyrs’ wives of Shiraz, the number of whom is 1000 persons among whom 133 persons have been selected at random. In order to do that research Beck’s depression questionnaire is used. In order to analyze the data collected the statistical methods, variance, T _ Test, Person’s correlation coefficient have been used. The results show that % 72. 4 of the shahed wives are in a way or another depressed and the rate of depression among shahed students of Shiraz is more than that of the non _ shahed (control group). Also there is meaningful difference between the rate of depression between those shahed wives who are employed and those who are not. In addition there was not meaningful difference between depression among shahed wives and the period after death of their husbands, the period they lived together, their age at the time of their husbands’ deaths and now and this indicates that the rate of the martyrs’ wives’ depression are not related to these factors.