PREVALENCE OF DEPRESSION AND ITS CORRELATION AMONG REGISTERED TUBERCULOSIS PATIENTS

Abstract

INTRODUCTION
In India, psychiatric disease is frequently overlooked among tuberculosis (TB) patients. Depression is a prevalent comorbidity among them that is often undiagnosed, mistreated and further contributes to non-adherence. Prevalence of depression and its severity among TB patients has recently garnered interest with a few studies exploring this association. However, since data in this niche is fairly limited, our study sheds further light on this public health hazard.
OBJECTIVES 
The present study was conducted to find out prevalence of depression using PHQ-9 and its correlation amongst tuberculosis patients registered at health centre's in Surat City, India.
METHODOLOGY
In this cross-sectional observational study, 425 adults with pulmonary and extrapulmonary TB without any pre-existing depression or psychiatric illness were enrolled at the DOTS clinics of 11 UHCs in Surat from July to November 2022. The sample size was calculated using 2 proportions- 40.83% and 23.6% (extremes of range of prevalence found in the Indian population) with equal allocation and absolute error of 10%. Patients were screened for depression using the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) and were correlated with other clinical and epidemiological variables. Groups were analysed using the chi-square test and a p-value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.
RESULTS
Overall prevalence of Depression among TB patients was 23.29%, with a majority of patients classified as mildly depressed.
Multivariable logistic regression indicated that patients were more likely to develop depressive symptoms belonging to groups having Marital life affected (OR=5.799 p<0.001), Interpersonal relation with family Ok (OR=3.815 p=0.002), Unemployed (OR=2.265 p=0.003), Occupation affected (OR=2.875 p<0.001), TB (Relapse) (OR=2.741 p=0.028) as compared to their counterparts.
CONCLUSION
The impact of TB and other chronic diseases goes beyond physical impairment. Recognising clues early and providing holistic care to patients should be the way forward.