Depression, psycho-social covariates and glycemic control among people with Type II Diabetes at Mulago Hospital

Abstract

Co morbid depression among people with Type II diabetes is twice as prevalent as in the general population. Moreover, there is scanty literature on depression among people with Type II diabetes in the context of Uganda. The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence of depression and the association of depression, age, gender and marital status on levels of glycosated hemoglobin (HbA1c) among people with Type II diabetes at Mulago National Referral Hospital (MNRH), Uganda. The study was a quantitative, cross-sectional study design which recruited 254 respondents. A subset of 70 respondents was used to measure levels of glycosated hemoglobin. The results showed a prevalence of depression of 7.9% among the diabetic subjects. The results showed no statistically significant difference in levels of glycosated hemoglobin (HbA1c) between the group with depression and the group without depression. There was no statistically significant relationship between glycosated hemoglobin (HbA1c) and the psycho-social covariate of age. There was a statistically significant difference in levels of glycosated hemoglobin (HbA1c) between the non-married group and the married group. Finally there was a statistically significant difference in levels of glycosated hemoglobin (HbA1c) between the female group and the male group.