Table 1 Demographic and clinical characteristics of the incident study cohort (patients with the start of any major depressive disorder episode within the study period, 1/1/2016–31/5/2018) at treatment initiation, n = 2553

Age, y

Median (IQR)

46 (35, 55)

49 (38, 56)

47 (36, 56)

0.001

Sex

Male

672 (34.8%)

237 (38.0%)

909 (35.6%)

0.154

Female

1257 (65.2%)

387 (62.0%)

1644 (64.4%)

Socio-economic status

Low

581 (30.1%)

188 (30.1%)

769 (30.1%)

0.711

Medium

402 (20.8%)

121 (19.4%)

523 (20.5%)

High

946 (49.0%)

315 (50.5%)

1261 (49.4%)

District

Central

1348 (69.9%)

472 (75.6%)

1820 (71.3%)

0.021

North

403 (20.9%)

104 (16.7%)

507 (19.9%)

South

178 (9.2%)

48 (7.7%)

226 (8.9%)

Comorbidities

Deyo-Charlson co-morbidity index, mean (SD)

0.88 (1.55)

0.90 (1.47)

0.89 (1.53)

0.788

Diabetes mellitus

207 (10.7%)

76 (12.2%)

283 (11.1%)

0.316

Cardio-vascular disease

157 (8.1%)

65 (10.4%)

222 (8.7%)

0.079

Hypertension

395 (20.5%)

157 (25.2%)

552 (21.6%)

0.014

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

50 (2.6%)

21 (3.4%)

71 (2.8%)

0.307

Cancer

141 (7.3%)

46 (7.4%)

187 (7.3%)

0.959

Osteoporosis

108 (5.6%)

43 (6.9%)

151 (5.9%)

0.234

Other co-morbidities ^*

Post-partum depression

5 (0.3%)

0 (0.0%)

5 (0.2%)

0.203

Anxiety

460 (23.8%)

162 (26.0%)

622 (24.4%)

0.285

Panic attacks

72 (3.7%)

16 (2.6%)

88 (3.4%)

0.241

Personality disorder

103 (5.3%)

52 (8.3%)

155 (6.1%)

0.006

Social phobia

16 (0.8%)

7 (1.1%)

23 (0.9%)

0.502

Smoking

Ever

926 (48.2%)

319 (51.1%)

1245 (48.9%)

0.324

Never

995 (51.7%)

305 (48.9%)

1300 (51.0%)

Missing

2 (0.1%)

0 (0.0%)

2 (0.1%)

Body mass index ^**

Mean (SD)

26.54 (5.6)

26.66 (5.59)

26.57 (5.6)

0.635