Abstract:
Background: Depression is a common mental disorder, affecting around 322 million of world
population. However, there is limited information in the study area that describes the magnitude
of depression and associated factors among medical and surgical out patients.
Objective: The objective of this study was to assess the magnitude of depression and
associated factors among adult attending medical and surgical OPDs in Harar public hospitals,
from March 11- 25, 2019.
Methods: Facility based cross-sectional study was conducted from March 11-25, 2019. Data
was collected by 8 fourth year graduating class psychiatric nurse and 2 BSC nurses supervisors
using a structured questionnaire. Descriptive analysis was done and the information was
presented using frequencies, tables and figures. Logistic regression was used to identify factors
associated with the outcome variable depression. All variables with P<0.25 in the bivariate
analysis were included in the final model of the multivariate analysis. In the multivariate
analysis P-value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Multi co-linearity test was
carried out to see the correlation between independent variables.
Results: From 681 respondents, 306 (44.9%) were depressed. Of these 30 % were mild, 10 %
were moderate, 3.7% were moderately severe and 1.2 % were severe. Female [AOR=3.887;
(95%CI: 2.175-6.946)]; age group 31-40 age [AOR=1.898; (95%CI:1.065-3.383)] and 51 years
and above age [AOR=5.722; (95%CI :2.438-13.430)]; patients who lived alone [AOR=2.974;
(95%CI :1.466-6.030)]; respondents who had family with mental illness [AOR= 2.126; (95%CI
:1.162-3.889)];patients with chronic diseases [AOR= 4.453;(95%CI:2.466-
8.040)];respondents who were substance users [AOR=9.429;(95%CI: 5.565-15.974)];those
respondents with stressful life events [AOR=7.146;(95%CI: 4.500-11.347)] were found
statistically significant association with depression.
Conclusion: The study revealed that high magnitude of depression. The important factors
associated with depression in this study were sex, age, living circumstance, family with mental
illness, history of chronic diseases, substance use and stressful life events in multivariate
analysis. Thus efforts should be made to address on depression reduction and to increase
attention for vulnerable patients.
