Health related quality of life and its correlates among people with depression attending outpatient department in Ethiopia: a cross sectional study

BACKGROUND: Depression is a common mental disorder negatively affects the cognitive, emotion, behavior, functionality and quality of life of people. Poor quality of life results in high rates of relapse, inability to perform occupational and social activities, impaired future outlook, and increases overall health care related costs. However, there is no available evidence regarding the health related quality of people with depression in Ethiopia. Therefore, evaluating the quality of life of people with depression is crucial. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to assess the health related quality of life and its correlates among people with depression at Amanuel Mental Specialized Hospital, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. METHODS: An institutional based cross-sectional study was conducted from May (1st) to (30th), 2018. A randomly selected 394 clients with depression were participated in this study. Health related quality of life was measured using world health organization quality of life brief. The collected data were coded and entered to SPSS version 20 for analysis. Step wise multiple linear regression analysis was used to identify the correlates of quality of life and the strength of the correlation was measured by β coefficient with 95% confidence interval. RESULTS: The mean (±SD) scores of quality of life of people with depression were 41.3 ± 7.5, 42.8 ± 8.2, 38.9 ± 8.9 and 41.8 ± 6.5 for physical, psychological, social and environmental domains, respectively. The Multiple regression analysis showed that age of respondents, age of onset of depression, perceived stigma, living arrangement, social support level and duration of illness were statistically significant predictors of health related quality of life of people with depression in all or at least one domain of quality of life. CONCLUSIONS: This study revealed that nearly half of study participants scored below the mean score in each domain of health related quality of life. This demonstrates a need for improving the quality of life of people with depression through the integration of a positive mental health approach and bio-psychosocial view together with the pharmacological treatments of depression. Moreover, strengthening social support, early identification and treatment of depression and prevention of stigma are also highly recommended to improve the quality of life of people with depression.