Prevalence of Depression and Its Associated Factors among Diabetes Mellitus Patients in an Urban Primary Care Clinic

Aims: To determine the prevalence of depression among patients with Diabetes Mellitus and to identify its associated risk factors.

Study design: This is a cross sectional study.

Place of study: This study was conducted in an urban primary care clinic in a tertiary hospital in Malaysia.

Methodology: This study utilized a self-administered questionnaire, Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale (HADS-D) for the data collection. A total of 358 respondents were eligible to be included in this study.

Results: A total of 382 respondents were recruited in this study using universal sampling method. A total number of 358 eligible respondents were included in the final data analysis. The response rate for this study was 94%. Respondents’ mean age was 60.8 years ± 10.3, 56% females, 38% Malays, 76% were married, 37.7% had Diabetes for more than 5 years and 76.3% had completed secondary school education. This study concluded that 63.7% of participants had poor diabetes control and 26% had probable depression. On multiple logistic regression, respondents who earned income less than RM 500 per month were 2.6 times more likely to have probable depression (aOR: 2.64, 95% CI:1.29 -5.43). Patients who received no formal education were 4.5 times more likely to have probable depression (aOR: 4.51 95% CI:1.74-11.63). Respondents with co-morbid illness were almost 3 times more likely to have probable depression (aOR: 2.92, 95% CI: 0.1-0.8).

Conclusion: Prevalence of probable depression was high and there was a significant association between depression with income, education level and co-morbid illness. Thus, there is a need to identify and manage depression accordingly among diabetic patients.