Comorbid Depression Is Associated With Increased Healthcare Utilization and Lost Productivity in Persons With Diabetes: A Large Nationally Representative Hungarian Population Survey

OBJECTIVE: To estimate the prevalence of depression among people with diabetes and to examine the association of comorbid depression with lost productivity and health resource utilization in persons with and without diabetes. METHODS: Cross-sectional survey, enrolling 12,643 individuals aged >18 years. Clustered, stratified sampling procedure was utilized. This sample represented 0.16% of the Hungarian adult population according to age, gender, and geographic regions. The severity of depressive symptoms was measured by the abbreviated Beck Depression Inventory. RESULTS: The prevalence of diabetes in the sample was 6.2% (95% Confidence Interval (CI) = 5.7-6.6), and 13.4% (95% CI = 12.8-13.9) were classified as depressed. Adults with diabetes were two times more likely to have depression (adjusted odds ratio (OR) = 1.83, 95% CI = 1.53-2.19, p or=20 days) (OR = 2.6, 95% CI = 1.69-3.88, p or=18 days) (OR = 2.1, 95% CI = 1.27-3.45, p = .004), and multiple hospital admissions (>or=2) (OR = 1.8, 95% CI = 1.13-2.82, p = .01) compared with nondepressed diabetic patients. CONCLUSIONS: These findings further document the association between depression and health resource utilization and lost productivity in people with diabetes. Screening and treating depression are important for everyday clinical care and public health initiatives to improve health outcomes for people with diabetes.