Depression, anxiety and quality of life of Afghan women living in urban areas under the Taliban government: a cross-sectional study

OBJECTIVES: According to the World Health Organization, depression is a common mental health illness that is characterised by a persistent feeling of sadness and loss of interest. The present study examined the association of two mental health variables (ie, depression, anxiety) with quality of life (QoL) and the sociodemographic characteristics of Afghan women living in urban areas under the rule of Taliban government in Afghanistan. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study administered between 10 November 2021 to 25 December 2021 among women. SETTING: Across major provinces of Afghanistan (Herat, Mazar-e-Sharif, Kabul and Samangan). MEASUREMENTS: Data were collected using a pretested structured questionnaire. Data entry was carried out using Microsoft Excel 2016. And then exported to IBM SPSS V.26 for Microsoft Windows. Logistic regression models were used to examine the association of depression, anxiety with QoL and sociodemographic characteristics among women (N=438). RESULTS: The prevalence of depression symptoms was 80.4%, and the prevalence of mild to extremely severe anxiety was 81.0%. Depression symptoms among Afghan women were associated with being older, having more children, lower education level, other individuals’ bad behaviour, bad events experienced in the past month, and feeling physically ill. Multiple regression analysis indicated that low monthly household income (adjusted OR, AOR 2.260; 95% CI 1.179 to 4.331, p=0.014) poor physical domain of QoL (AOR 4.436; 95% CI 1.748 to 11.256, p=0.002) and poor psychological domain of QoL (AOR 23.499; 95% CI 7.737 to 71.369, p<0.001) were significantly associated with depression. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of depression was high among women living under the government of the Taliban in Afghanistan. Considering the high prevalence of depression, anxiety and their impact on QoL and the overall quality of healthcare services, international health organisations should implement programmes for regular screening of depression and anxiety, and there should be psychological counselling services available for vulnerable women living under the government of the Taliban.