Abstract:
Background. Depression is a comorbid disorder in patients with heart failure and it is a major public health problem worldwide. Little
is known about the depression among heart failure patients in low-income countries, while, in Ethiopia, none was studied. Objective.
This study is to assess the prevalence of depression and associated factors among heart failure patients at cardiac follow-up clinics
at Amhara Region Referral Hospitals, Northwest Ethiopia, 2017. Methods. A hospital based cross-sectional study was conducted
between March 30, 2017, and May 15, 2017, G.C., by using a systematic random sampling technique to select 422 of 1395 HF patients.
Structured interviewer-administered questionnaires and patient card review with a checklist that incorporates the PHQ-9 tool for
depression measurement were used. The collected data were checked, coded, and entered into Epi-info version 7 and exported to
SPSS version 20. Bivariate logistic regression at p-value <0.2 was exported to multivariate logistic regressions and p-value <0.05
was considered statistically significant. Results. A total of 403 were included with a response rate of 95.5%. Among the participants,
51.1% had depressive symptoms. Factors associated with depressive symptoms were poor self-care behavior 1.60 [AOR (95% CI=1.01,
2.55)], poor social support 1.90 [AOR (95% CI=1.16, 3.12)], being female 2.70 [AOR (95% CI=1.44, 5.07)], current smoking history
4.96 [AOR (95% CI=1.54, 15.98)], and duration of heart failure (>1 year) 1.64 [AOR (95% CI=1.04, 2.59)]. Conclusions. Around half
of the patients were depressive. The patients who had poor self-care behavior, were females, had poor social support, had a current
history of smoking, and had duration of chronic heart failure >1 year need special attention. Therefore, all referral hospitals need
efforts to focus on those problems and target improvements of depressive symptoms
