Spatial distribution and risk factors of depression in Lothian based on open data of General Practitioner (GP)

Abstract

Depression, whose symptom relating to the mood of human, is one of the crucial diseases that plague human health as it always leads to other severe diseases, sometimes incurable diseases. The aim of this research is to visualise the spatial distribution of depression in Lothian and explore the factors that may keep people in a bad feeling for a long time and lead to depression. This study proposed a method that uses open data to show the incidence of depression accurately and clearly in the study area and investigate risk factors. Utilising the cost of prescribing data to represent the prevalence of depression is adopted in this research and then visualise it to the General Practice (GP) catchment constructed by the Huff Model. In terms of the risk factors, income, education, greenspace and circadian rhythmicity is selected to investigate the relationships with the prevalence of depression. Results indicated that a decreasing trend of depression incidence is performed in the study area and the situation in Edinburgh is the best. There is no direct correlation in income, education, greenspace and the prevalence of depression in contrast to circadian rhythmicity that affects the incidence of depression according to the results of this research.