Prevalence of depression and its associated factors among adult epileptic patients following treatment at public health facilities of bench maji zone, south west Ethiopia, 2017.

Abstract

Back ground: Depression among epileptic patients has multiple effects: poor quality of life, increased seizure frequency, risk of suicide and increased health care cost. It is often under recognized and untreated among these patients. This study is therefore aimed to assess the prevalence of depression and its associated factors among epileptic patients in public health facilities of Bench Maji zone, south west Ethiopia. Objective: The objective of this study was to assess prevalence of depression and its associated factors among epileptic patients on treatment follow up at public health facilities of Bench Maji zone, south west Ethiopia,2017. Methods: Institution based quantitative cross-sectional study design was conducted in public health facilities of Bench Maji zone. Face to face interview was used to collect data with semi structured questionnaires adapted from different literatures. Beck depression inventory was used to assess depression. The study involved 247 adult participants who were selected by systematic random sampling. Data were collected from March 3- April 3 2017. Data were categorized, coded, entered in EPI info 3.5.1 and exported to SPSS 21.0 for analysis. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis were used to describe the association of dependent and independent variables. P value less than 0.05 was considered as significant in multivariate logistic regression analysis. Result: out of 247 aimed sample, 244 involved in the study and yields a response rate of 98.8%. The prevalence of depression among patients with epilepsy was 51.2%. Of these; 60%, 36%, and 4% of the patients were found to have mild, moderate and severe depression respectively. Low educational status (AOR=2.5, CI (1.32, 4.78)), Seizure frequencies >=3 per month (AOR=3.06, CI (1.412, 6.65)), Age at onset of epilepsy <=11years (AOR=4.58, CI (1.94, 10.82)), low antiepileptic drug adherence (AOR=4.81, CI (2.32, 9.97)) and poor knowledge about epilepsy (AOR=2.77,CI(1.5,5.12)) were found to be independent factors of depression among epileptic patients. Conclusion and recommendations: The prevalence of depression among the adult patients with epilepsy wash high, although the levels of depression varied. Routine early depression screening for early recognition and treatment should be done in people living with epilepsy.