Kingsley Nwachukwu
Country: Nigeria
Background - Bachelor of Science
Research Project: The Prevalence of Depression and Anxiety in People Living with HIV in an Infectious Disease Clinic
ABSTRACT
Objectives: The general objective of this study was to systematically show the prevalence of depression and anxiety present in people living with HIV as a call for the proper integration of mental health services towards their care. The specific objectives were, to determine the prevalence of depression and anxiety in people living with HIV in an Infectious Disease Clinic in North Dublin, and to determine the additional benefits for patients of the systematic use of a depression and anxiety screening tool to identify cases of depression and anxiety.
Methods: This was a quantitative cross-sectional study, where non-probabilistic purposive sampling technique was employed to recruit participants from an Infectious Disease Out-patients’ Clinic, on St. John’s ward, in Beaumont hospital, North Dublin. One 14-item mood screening self-rated questionnaire called hospital anxiety and depression rating scale (HADS), and another 17-item semi-structured questionnaire were administered to 100 people living with HIV attending this clinic, which both took 15 minutes to complete in total. Quantitative data was collected and analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) windows version 16.0.
Results: Up to 31.3% of males and 46.1% of females who took part in the study were screened to be depressed; and 52% of males as well as 55.7% of females were screened to have anxiety disorder. There were also interesting association between depression and/or anxiety, and some sociodemographic and/or health-related factors.
Conclusion: As the prevalence of depression and anxiety is significant enough in people living with HIV, the need to improve the service provided for this cohort, by referring on to mental health specialists to confirm diagnosis and treat as appropriate becomes essential. Co-morbid depression and anxiety will; reduce compliance to treatment, increase the rate of progression, cause impairment of insight, and completed suicide in people living with HIV if not treated. Hence the need for proper integration of mental health service in the management of people living with HIV.
Keywords: Prevalence, depression, anxiety, HADS, HIV, Ireland
Total Word Count: 12,142 (Only body of thesis was counted)