Prevalence and Factors Associated with Stress, Anxiety and Depression amongst Primary Care Patients with Hepatitis B and C Infections in Nigeria.

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Globally, more than 350 million people live with viral hepatitis, out of which over 20 million are in Nigeria. The prevalence of anxiety, depression and stress among patients with viral hepatitis in the primary care setting is not well established. OBJECTIVES: The objectives of this study were to determine the prevalence and factors associated with depression, anxiety and stress among hepatitis patients in a primary care clinic in North Central Nigeria using the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ2), Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD 2) and Kessler 6 scales respectively. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was carried out among Hepatitis B and C patients attending the Hepatitis Clinic of the Family Medicine Department, Federal Medical Centre Keffi. A total of 123 participants were recruited using a simple random sampling technique. Their sociodemographic and clinical data were collected after which they were screened for depression, anxiety and stress. Data collected was analysed using IBM SPSS. RESULTS: The mean age of study participants was 38.9±11.6 years. Most of them had hepatitis B infection (89.7%) and were on antiviral medications or liver supplements (45.2%). The prevalence of anxiety, depression and stress among them were found to be 18.9%, 25% and 77.6% respectively. Illness duration and medication use were found to be significantly associated with both depression and stress among them. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of anxiety, depression and stress is high among adult primary care patients with viral hepatitis in FMC Keffi.