Abstract:
Background: Depression and heart disease are important public-health problem. These two syndromes
are among the top leading causes of disease burden worldwide. Depression is one of the most prevalent
and disabling psychiatric disorders with more than three times increased risk among patients with
cardiovascular disorders (CVD). They have bidirectional association. In addition, depression worsense
the outcome of CVD when it coe-exist especially with this syndrome. Despite the importance of
knowledge regarding the prevalence rate and associated factors of depressive disorders among adult
patients with cardiovascular disease, there is a scarcity of literature from Ethiopia and perhaps from
Subsaharan African countries where the available health care system gives priority mainly to physical
health conditions neglecting or being unaware of the enormous impact of mental health disorders on the
morbidity, mortality, productivity and quality of lifepatients with physical illnese in general and the
impact of depression on patients with CVD in particular.
Objective: To estimate the prevalence and toidentify factors associated with depressive disorders among
adult patients with cardiovascular disease.
Method: Tertiary teaching hospital-based cross-sectional study design was used. This study was
condacted on 293 study participants attending outpatient cardiac clinic at Jimma university teaching
hospital (JUTH). Structured questionnaires were developed to collect information on socio-demographic,
lifestyle, psychosocial and clinical and medication related characteristics of participants. Depression was
assessed using patient health questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9). Bivariate analysis was used to analyze the
statistical association of covariates of interest with depressive disorder among patients with CVD. Then,
multivariate logistic regression analysis was used as a final model to control for confounders. The
significane of association was presented as odds ratios with 95% confidence interval.
Results: A total of 293 adult patients diagnosed with cardiovascular disease were included in the study
with 97 % (n=284) of response rate, 47.2% (n=134) males and 52.8% (n=150) females, making female to
male ratio around 1.1:1. The prevalence of depression was 52.8% (n=150/284). Out of the subjects with
depression 52.67% (n=79), 36.0% (n=54) and 11.33% (n=17) were mild, moderate and severe
depression, respectively. Depression related employed and unemployed, physicaly active, current
cigarette user and poor social support variable were independently associated with depression in the
final model.
Conclusion: In ths study depression was found to be highly prevalent psychiatric comorbidity in adult
CVD patients. Timely recognization and treatment of depression should be important for reducing
depression in patients with CVD.
