Abstract:
Background: Currently depression is estimated to affect 350 million people globally. It is a
significant contributor to the global burden of disease and affects people in all communities
across the world. At its worst, depression can lead to suicide and almost 1 million lives are
lost yearly due to suicide, which translates to 3000 suicide deaths every day. In Ethiopia,
mental illness is the leading non-communicable disorder in terms of burden. However, share
of depression and associated factors were not well studied among adult at community level in
Eastern Ethiopia.
Objectives: to assess prevalence of depression and associated factors among adult population
from February 19 to March 5, 2015
Methods: A cross -sectional study was conducted among a sample of 834 adults aged 15
years and above. Standardized clinical rating scale PHQ-9 was used to collect data. EPI-Data
version 3.0 and SPSS 16 software were used for data entry and analysis respectively. Both
descriptive and inferential (bivariate and multivariate) statistics were used for data analysis.
OR with 95% CI & p<=0.05 were used for decision of significant association.
Result: The prevalence of depression was 26.6%. After adjusting for confounding variables,
depression was highly prevalent among socio economic status of households with middle
wealth index [AOR=1.62, 95% CI (1.077-2.441)] , educational attainment (illiterate and
elementary education) [AOR=2.27, 95% CI (1.289-3.986)] and [AOR=2.21, 95% CI (1.301- 3.739)] respectively, stressful life events [AOR=2.87, 95% CI (2.043-4.030)], chronic non- communicable diseases [AOR=1.59, 95% CI (1.094-2.316)] and family history of mental
illness, users of substance such as khat, cigarette and shisha and marital status those divorced
were no more significant association in multivariate analysis.
Conclusion and recommendation: educational status, socioeconomic status, stressful life
events, presence of chronic non communicable disease, family history of mental illness and
substance use were the most important risk factors for depression. Because of the high
magnitude related consequences of depression attention should be given at all levels and by
all sectors/institutions.
