A Cross-Sectional Study on the Prevalence of Depression and Associated Factors in Tuberculosis Patients in the Vidisha District of Madhya Pradesh, India

Introduction: Tuberculosis (TB) is a major public health problem in the developing world. Depression affects medicine adherence in TB patients. There is a scarcity of data regarding the prevalence of depression among TB patients from any city in central India. Therefore, the aim of this research was to study the prevalence of depression and associated factors in TB patients in the Vidisha district of Madhya Pradesh, India. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted on 106 TB patients visiting the TB and chest outpatient department of Atal Bihari Vajpayee Government Medical College (ABVGMC). It is a tertiary health care facility located in the district of Vidisha in Madhya Pradesh, India. Data collection was done from September 2020 to January 2021. Depression was measured using the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9). We used a semi-structured questionnaire to collect data regarding relevant demographic and behavioral factors. Analyses were done in IBM SPSS software, version 25 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY). Results: The prevalence of depression among TB patients was 55.7% (n = 59). Depression in the mild category was most common (n = 44, 41.5%), followed by moderate (n = 10, 9.4%), and the moderately severe (n = 5, 4.7%) category. Depression prevalence was found to be slightly more common in females (58.5% vs. 52.8% in males), married participants (58.2% vs. 51.3% in unmarried), educated more than high school (56.8% vs. 54.8% in less than high school), socioeconomically Above Poverty Line (APL) (60.5% vs. 52.4% in Below Poverty Line (BPL)), living in urban areas (60.9% vs. 47.6% in rural areas), and in the continuation phase of anti-TB treatment (58.6% vs. 52.1% in intensive phase), but differences were statistically non-significant. Depression was significantly associated with the medicine non-adherence group (vs. the medicine adherence group; p-value: 0.022) and the previously treated TB patient category (vs. the new case group; p-value: 0.031). Conclusion: The prevalence of depression among TB patients was very high (55.7%). The prevalence of depression was significantly higher in the medicine non-adherent group (p-value: 0.022) and the previously treated TB patient group (p-value: 0.031). In this study, we have not found any significant association between the prevalence of depression among TB patients and sex, marital status, education attainment, poverty status, or living in an urban or rural areas.