Objective        To investigate the incidence of depressive symptom in Chinese armymen following rush marching into high altitude areas

and to explore the influence of social supports and life events.       Methods        Self-depression scale (CES-D)

life events scale for military personnel

social support scale for Chinese military personnel and self-administered questionnaire on general condition were employed to test 1

214 armymen following rush march

ing into plateau. Data were entered and analyzed using SPSS 18.0

and Student’s

t

-test and Logistic regression were used for statistical analysis.       Results        (1) The incidence of depressive symptom in the armymen following rush marching into the high altitude (4 800 m) areas was significantly higher than that in the armymen in the areas with altitude of 3 680 m (30.1%

vs

18.4%

P

<

0.01). (2) The levels of depressive symptoms including depressed mood

positive mood

somatic symptoms and retarded activity and  interpersonal relationship in the 3 680 m group were significantly lower than those in the 4 800 m group (

P

<

0.01). (3) The level of depressive symptom was positively correlated with the number of life events

but was negatively correlated with social support (

r

=0.473

P

<

0.01;

r

=-0.374

P

<

0.01).       Conclusion        The incidence and level of depressive symptom increase significantly in Chinese armymen as the increase of the altitude of the areas they marching into. Life events may enhance the onset of depression

while social support may reduce the depression to some extent.