Prevalence of Depression and its Associated Factos in Adults with Diabetes Mellitus : A Cross - Sectional Study in a Teritary Care Centre

The prevalence of Diabetes Mellitus has been rising steadily owing to several factors such as sedentary lifestyle, obesity and an aging population. The prevalence of diabetes is predicted to double globally from 171 million in 2000 to 366 million in 2030 with a maximum increase in India with up to 79.4 million individuals in India. Depression occurs frequently with diabetes but there are not many studies in India to estimate its prevalence and associated factors. This study was done with the aim of estimating the prevalence of depression among diabetes patients using the validated Patient Health Questionnaire-9 and also its associated factors. A cross sectional study was done on 100 consecutive patients with Diabetes Mellitus (both type 1&2) attending the Outpatient Endocrinology clinic from September 2015 to November 2015. The Patient Health Questionnaire diagnostic algorithm was used to identify major depression. The covariates studied were age, gender, duration of diabetes, presence of hypertension and glycaemic control. Chi-square test was done to find the association of demographic and clinical characteristics of depression. Multiple logistic regressional analysis was done to identify the statistically significant variables. The prevalence of major depression was found to be 35%. People with hypertension were found to have a significantly higher prevalence of depression (adjusted odds ratio=3.02, 95% CI: 1.17 to 7.7, P=0.022). Also, employed people were at a lower risk for depression when compared to the unemployed /retired population (adjusted odds ratio=0.319, 95% CI: 0.11-0.85, P=0.023).Interestingly age, duration of diabetes and glycaemic control were not significantly associated with depression. Over one-third of the patients with diabetes mellitus had depressive symptoms. The prevalence varied by demographic and clinical characteristics.