Depression among Chronic Kidney Disease Patients at a Tertiary Level Hospital in Bangladesh

Author(s): Bipula Roy, Mosammet Khaleda Akter, Mohammad Nurul Anowar, Jinnat Rehana

Background: Depression is a common psychiatric problem around the world. It is more frequent among patients with chronic illnesses in comparison to general population. It is more common in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD).

Objective: To describe the depression of CKD patients at a tertiary level hospital in Bangladesh.

Methodology: This descriptive study was conducted at Department of Nephrology, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU), Dhaka, Bangladesh from July 2019 to June 2020, among 112 CKD patients recruited by convenience sampling technique. Data were collected by face to face interview. The Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS) was used to assess the severity of depression.

 Results: The mean age of the participants was 46.75 ( ± 14.80) years of them 60.71% were male, 39.29% female and 82.14% married. The mean Zung score of depression among CKD patients was 54.43 ( ± 6.34); from the total number of patients 80.36% had depression; of them mild depression was 61.61%, moderate depression was 19.64% and severe depression was 0.89%. A few socio demographic factors such as religious belief, unemployment, economic independency, lack of regular physical exercise along with family history of depression and duration of illness in CKD had demonstrated significant association with patient’s depression (p<0.05).

Conclusion: Depression is frequently common in CKD patients and mild depression is more common. An early diagnosis and proper treatment of depression could be helpful in improving the quality of life of CKD patients.