Factors Associated with Depression among Heart Failure Patients at Cardiac Follow-Up Clinics in Northwest Ethiopia, 2017: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract EN

Background.

Depression is a comorbid disorder in patients with heart failure and it is a major public health problem worldwide.

Little is known about the depression among heart failure patients in low-income countries, while, in Ethiopia, none was studied.

Objective.

This study is to assess the prevalence of depression and associated factors among heart failure patients at cardiac follow-up clinics at Amhara Region Referral Hospitals, Northwest Ethiopia, 2017.

Methods.

A hospital based cross-sectional study was conducted between March 30, 2017, and May 15, 2017, G.C., by using a systematic random sampling technique to select 422 of 1395 HF patients.

Structured interviewer-administered questionnaires and patient card review with a checklist that incorporates the PHQ-9 tool for depression measurement were used.

The collected data were checked, coded, and entered into Epi-info version 7 and exported to SPSS version 20.

Bivariate logistic regression at p-value <0.2 was exported to multivariate logistic regressions and p-value <0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Results.

A total of 403 were included with a response rate of 95.5%.

Among the participants, 51.1% had depressive symptoms.

Factors associated with depressive symptoms were poor self-care behavior 1.60 [AOR (95% CI=1.01, 2.55)], poor social support 1.90 [AOR (95% CI=1.16, 3.12)], being female 2.70 [AOR (95% CI=1.44, 5.07)], current smoking history 4.96 [AOR (95% CI=1.54, 15.98)], and duration of heart failure (>1 year) 1.64 [AOR (95% CI=1.04, 2.59)].

Conclusions.

Around half of the patients were depressive.

The patients who had poor self-care behavior, were females, had poor social support, had a current history of smoking, and had duration of chronic heart failure >1 year need special attention.

Therefore, all referral hospitals need efforts to focus on those problems and target improvements of depressive symptoms.