Research report Public attitudes towards prevention of depression Georg Schomerus ⁎ , Matthias C. Angermeyer, Herbert Matschinger, Steffi G. Riedel-Heller Department of Psychiatry, Leipzig University, Johannissallee 20, 04317 Leipzig, Germany Received 11 January 2007; received in revised form 26 June 2007; accepted 27 June 2007 Available online 27 July 2007 Abstract Background: Various programs for depression prevention have been shown to be effective, but preventive efforts population wide are only beginning. We examine public attitudes towards prevention of depression and beliefs about helpful preventive measures. Method: Fully structured telephone interview with a representative population sample including people of German nationality older than 14 years (n = 1016). Results: 75.4% of the sample agreed on the possibility to prevent depression. Of those, 403 (52.6%) stated that they would take part in prevention programs, and in this group 234 (58.1%) indicated readiness to pay out of their pocket for such programs. Out of a catalogue of 37 proposed actions, psychosocial and lifestyle related measures were preferred. Exploratory factor analysis revealed three factors – proactive lifestyle, relying on medicine, and relaxing – inherent in public beliefs about helpfulness of preventive measures. Higher education reduced willingness, high perceived personal risk of depression and previous contact to the disease increased willingness to take part in preventive programs. Conclusion: The public entertains favourable attitudes and beliefs about prevention of depression that do not conflict with evidence-based programs. Our study thus encourages implementation of population based prevention programs. © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Depression; Prevention; Public attitudes; Population survey 1. Introduction Depression is a very common mental disorder with a prevalence of 5–9% (Martin et al., 2006; Narrow et al., 2002). For 2020, unipolar depression is predicted to rank second after cardiovascular diseases in terms of burden of disease as measured by disability adjusted life years lost (Murray and Lopez, 1996). This heavy burden is increasingly recognised and challenges health and social systems in the western world. As a result, health politicians' interest in prevention of depression is growing (European Comission, 2005). A substantial body of knowledge on prevention of depression exists, and numerous programs of universal, selective, and indicated prevention have been shown to be successful (Cuijpers et al., 2005; Jane-Llopis et al., 2003). Yet few of these ideas have been transferred to regular practice, and population wide efforts to reduce incidence of depression are only beginning (Hickie, 2004; Smith et al., 2004). One reason for this may be that healthy people's interest in prevention of depression is low. However, in contrast to medical conditions like Journal of Affective Disorders 106 (2008) 257 – 263 www.elsevier.com/locate/jad ⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: +49 341 9724530; fax: +49 341 9724539. E-mail address: georg.schomerus@medizin.uni-leipzig.de (G. Schomerus). 0165-0327/$ - see front matter © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jad.2007.06.013