Comorbidity of Depression and Diabetes Mellitus in University of Gondar Referral Hospital, Gondar, Ethiopia

Diabetes is a metabolic disorder with a high worldwide prevalence. It has been reported that diabetic patients are more prone to depression. The purpose of the present study was to assess the prevalence rate of depression among patient with diabetes. Hospital based cross-sectional explanatory design was used. Simple random sampling was employed to recruit 287 diabetes patients from University of Gondar referral hospital, Gondar, Ethiopia. A questionnaire has two sections where the first section collects data on patients' demographic characteristics. The second section, Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) was used to assess the severity of depression. Descriptive and inferential statistics including percentage, mean and standard deviation, independent sample t-test, point bi-serial and one-way ANOVA were utilized. All data were analyzed using SPSS for Windows version 20. As a result, the general life time prevalence rate of severe depression disorder among diabetes patients was 43%. In this study, it was revealed that sex (t (285) = -4.29, p< 0.05) and medication adherence (t (285) = -4.23, p< 0.05) do have statistically significant effect on diabetics patients' depression disorder. On the other hand, duration of illness (t (285) = -1.23, p > 0.05) and types of diabetes (t (285) = 0.51, p>0.05) had no statistically significant effect on diabetes patients' depression disorder. Furthermore, ANOVA result shows that diabetics patients' marital status (F (3,283) =13.00, p< 0.05) and educational status (F (4,282) = 7.39, p < 0.05) had a statistically significant effect on patients' depression disorder. However, age of patients had a statistically insignificant effect on patients' depression disorder (F (4,282) = 0.67, p>0.05). Finally, positive correlation were observed between patients' medication adherence and depression (r = .243, p < 0.05) although the relationship was weak. To conclude, comorbidity of diabetes and depression is highly prevalent. Therefore, mental health service providers shall regularly screen and treat diabetes patients' clinical depression disorder. Hence, increasing patients' awareness towards diabetes to enhance self-determination through integrated psychological and medical care in the management of diabetes would promote optimal health outcomes.