According to a new study in Finland, people in their working ages who live alone face an 80 per cent more chance of suffering from depression compared to other s who lie with friends of family.

The study at the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health said that both men and women are equally Factors like living condition for women and a lack of social support for men increase the changes of depression. It shows that the number of single-person households in western courtiers have increased in the last three decades. About a third of the population now lives alone in the US and the UK.

Researchers looked at anti-depressant consumption by 3,500 people in Finland. The participants included 1,695 men and 1,776 women in their working age. The average age of participants was 44.6 years.

Researchers surveyed the participants in the year 2000 and asked them if they lived alone or with families. They looked at social support, work climate, education, income, employment status and housing conditions besides smoking habits, alcohol use and activity levels.

The study found that people living alone bought 80 per cent more anti-depressant medicine during the observation period of 2000 to 2008 compared to those who did not live alone

Dr Laura Pulkki-Raback, who led the research at the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, said "This kind of study usually underestimates risk because the people who are at the most risk tend to be the people who are least likely to complete the follow up. We were also not able to judge how common untreated depression was."

A charity working in the field of mental health has said that people who are living alone must be given outlet to speak about their problems. The study was published in BioMed Central's public health journal.