Frequency of Psychological and Social Influences of Depression in Patients of Essential Hypertension

Authors

Abstract

Objective: To determine the frequency of depression in patients with essential hypertension and psychosocial determinates of depression in patients with essential hypertension.

Methods

This cross-sectional study was conducted at Psychiatry Department, Sheikh Zayed Hospital, Lahore from 13 11-2023 to 13-05-2024. A total of one hundred and fifty patients having essential hypertension and fulfilling selection criteria were recruited for the study. Patients were evaluated by using Patient Health Questionnaire-9. If the score was ≥10, depression was noted. All determinants including gender, age, education, employment, socioeconomic status, physical activity, smoking and family history of hypertension were also noted. Data was recorded in proforma and analyzed in SPSS version 25.

Results

  The mean age of participants noted was 57.8± 12.23 years, including 46.0% male and 54.0% female. The mean PHQ-9 score was 8.75± 5.58. Out of 150, depression was found in 69 (46.0%) patients, and it was found to be significantly associated with female gender (p = 0.001), lower educational status (p = 0.001), and physical inactivity (p = 0.040). However, no significant association was observed with smoking (p = 0.050) or family history of hypertension (p = 0.240).

Conclusion

 The prevalence of depression is high among hypertensive patients and it is found to be significantly associated with female gender, lower educational status, and physical inactivity. However, no significant association of depression was observed with smoking or a family history of hypertension.

Keywords:

Essential Hypertension, Depression, Psychosocial Determinates, Patient Health Questionnaire

Published

2025/11/21

Issue

Vol. VOLUME 6-issue 4

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 4.0 International License .

This is an open-access journal and all the published articles / items are distributed under the terms of the  Creative Commons Attribution BY-NC 4.0 License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. For comments psimjournal@gmail.com