Assessment of depression severity among cancer patients in Nanakaly Hospital, Erbil City

Abstract

Background and objective: Depressive symptoms are present in several psychiatric disorders, the ones most commonly seen in patients with cancer, especially more common in those who are at the end of life. This study aimed to assess the severity of depression and association between socio-demographic data with the severity of depression among Cancer Patients in Nanakaly Hospital, Erbil City.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 100 cancer patients of both genders in Nanakaly Hospital, Erbil city, Iraq, from February 22^nd, 2016 to April 27^th, 2016. A questionnaire was designed for the study; it contained two parts. Part one consisted of socio-demographic characteristics such as age, gender, level of education, occupation, marital status, economic status, religion and residential area of the patients. Part two consisted of Beck depression rating inventory. Data were collected through interviews with patients. Frequency, percentages and Chi-square tests were used for interpretation of data.

Results: The mean age (±SD) was 49.54 (±16.66) years. Each of males and females represented 50% of the sample. Most of the participants were married (75%), illiterate (35%), Muslims (94%), housewives (38%), had somehow sufficient income (40%) and from rural areas (84%). Majority of the studied sample (79%) suffered from moderate depression level, while only (21%) of them suffered from severe depression. There was no significant association between the level of depression and the socio-demographic characteristics of the patients and the medical status as well.

Conclusion: The study concluded that most of the cancer patients have depression symptoms.