Frequency of Degree of Depression in Relation to the Duration of Diabetes Mellitus in a Tertiary Care Hospital in Patients Aged 20-55 Years

Abstract

Objective: To  determine the frequency of depression and the relation of duration of diabetes with degree of depression.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out at Abbasi Shaheed Hospital,  North  Nazimabad,  Karachi, Pakistan. The duration of the study was six months from December 2017 to May 2018. It  comprised of male and female patients between the  age  brackets  of  20-55  years  of  age  who  had  been pre-diagnosed with diabetes for at least 5 years and were currently not on any anti-depressants and did not have history of any other psychiatric illness. Demographic data including the age, sex,  education level, marital status, occupation and religious belief of the participants along with the duration of diabetes for each individual was recorded. The ICD-10 major depression inventory was translated into Urdu and validated in the same institution before this study was conducted  and  was  administered during face-to-face interviews. ICD here refers to the International  Classification  of  Dis- eases (ICD) which is the international  standard  diagnostic  tool  for  epidemiology,  health  management and clinical purposes. A minimum score of 4 or  5  in  two  of  the  first  three  items  plus  a  score  of  at least 3 on two or three of the last seven items means that the person is mildly depressed and as the score increases so does the severity of depression .

Results: Of the 378 people who were assessed 216 (57.1%) were depressed. Data analysis showed that out of the 216 depressed patients, 25.7% had mild, 26.2% had moderate, 4.2% had severe and 1.3% had major depression. On performing chi-square  test  there  was  a  relation  between  the  increase in duration of diabetes and the degree of depression.

Conclusion: Results of our sample show that a higher degree of depression is  related  to  a  longer duration of diabetes.