ABSTRACT
In ten European countries prevalence of later life depression has been studied using Prince’s EURO-D meta-assessment scale. It is well-known that women tend to be more depressive than men, and that depression increases with age. Since there are differences in the size of the effects of age and gender between the countries, a multilevel methodology is appropriate. An attempt was made to explain those differences by referring to the national culture, especially regarding the national religious climate and Hofstede’s classification of values. The countries involved were: Belgium, England, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, The Netherlands, Spain, and Sweden. The 16,692 respondents were elderly persons of 64 years and over. Religious climate was assessed using data of the European Value Survey, and national climate by Hofstede’s classification. It turns out that the gender-depression relationship tends to be more susceptible for mitigating effects of the national religious climate, and that age-depression relationship tend to be more susceptible for their provoking effects. The mean depression score depends differently on different aspects of religious climate. Any effect of Hofstede’s classification could not be detected
