Sri Varsha Reddy Chinnam*, Vaishnavi Kalepalli, Mahima Swaroopa Mandava, Sahana Veeramachaneni, Mubeentaj Shaik, Vijaya Kumar Ghanta, Siva Prasad Gunda, Madhavi Kodali
Objective: Patients visiting the hospital are at a greater risk of developing depression owing to different correlates such as health issues, stress etc; which is mostly under-diagnosed or under-treated. Our primary goal is to determine the depression severity, evaluate its prevalence and correlates.
Methodology: This is a cross-sectional study, that was conducted over a period of six months on patients visiting the tertiary care teaching hospital. Data were gathered from 1380 subjects using DSM-V, Kuppuswamy SES scale, PSLE Scale.
Results: A total of 1380 subjects were included, of all the subjects 28.15% had slight depression, 34.56% had mild, 30.54% moderate and 6.74% had severe depression respectively. The prevalence of depression among females [51.8%] was greater than males. Depression was significantly observed in rural residents, subjects belonging to lower middle class and those with health issues.
Conclusion: The prevalence of depression among the study population was found to be high. Out of 1380 subjects, 920 (66.67%) of them were found to be with depression. Patients with Neurological, Reproductive and Psychiatric disorders were found to have the major contribution for Depression. The novel correlate of depression in our study is that the subjects who experience 1-15 negative/s tr essful life events in the past 6 months were found to have significant association with depression. In the comprehensive analysis education level, locality, monthly income, underlying disorders and stressful life events accounted for a significant amount of the variance in depression scores.