Perceived social support and its relationship with depression among Bangkok's trans women

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the prevalence of depression and to determine the association between social support and depression among transgender women in Bangkok, Thailand. Design/methodology/approach – A cross-sectional study was conducted among 280 transgender women in Bangkok, Thailand between March 2019 and May 2019 using the snowball sampling method. Data were collected through a self-administered questionnaire. The questionnaire included demographic questions and measures of social support (MSPSS) and depression (CES-D). Multivariable logistic regression analysis was employed to explore the association between social support and depression. Findings – The prevalence of depression among transgender women was 58.2%. Multivariable logistic regression analysis indicated that depression was significantly associated with perceived low social support (OR: 9.55, 95%CI: 2.10–43.39) and moderate social support (OR: 2.03, 95%CI: 1.19–3.46) after being adjusted for religion, sufficient income and alcohol drinking. Originality/value – Transgender women were prone to experience a higher prevalence of depression than the general population. Social support would reduce the risk of depression among transgender women. Therefore, social support service systems for transgender women should be embedded into organizations concerned.

Keywords

• depression
• social support
• transgender
• mental health
• thailand