According to data released today by the Regional Directorate of Statistics of Madeira, the National Health Survey, which was carried out between September 2019 and January 2020, indicates that depression affects 10.4% of the island’s population aged 15 and over. Depression is classed as a chronic disease and the surveys results mean that 22,900 people living in the region suffer from chronic depression, with women being more affected than men. The results are similar to those released in the 2014 survey.
According to the Regional survey, the islands most chronic problems in people aged 15 and over are low back pain or other chronic back problems (31.8%), high blood pressure (28.7%), with arterial hypertension showing the greatest increase compared to 2014 (+6.0 percentage points – pp), and allergies (23.0%).
Furthermore, 55% of the population aged 18 and over are classed as overweight or obese (38.2% were overweight and 16.8% were classed as obese), although this figure is 1.6% down on the 2014 survey.
Samantha Gannon
info at madeira-weekly.com
