Prevalence of Depression and Its Associated Risk Factors among Young Adult Patients Attending the Primary Health Centers in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia

BACKGROUND: The number of young depressive patients approaching the primary health care centres in Saudi Arabia for supportive care and treatment has enormously increased, but more cases of depression are not being diagnosed properly at the primary health care level. AIM: To assess the prevalence and associated factors of depression among young adult patients attending the primary health centres in Tabuk, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was done in selected primary health care centres in Tabuk city from March 2018 to June 2018. Patient Health Questionnaire- PHQ-2 and PHQ-9 and a modified questionnaire were used to collect the necessary information and data were analysed by using SPSS (Version 25.0, SPSS Inc. Chicago, IL, USA). RESULTS: The study included 384 patients aged between 20 and 40 years. Most of them (76.6%) were females. The prevalence of depression was 74%; mild among 37.8%, moderate among 20.8% whereas moderately severe to severe among 15.4% of them. Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that married patients were at lower risk for depression (Adjusted odds ratio “AOR” was 0.36, 95% confidence interval “CI” was 0.20-0.93), p < 0.001. Patients who reported a lack of social support were more likely to be depressed than those with social support (AOR = 2.05, 95% CI = 1.03-4.07), p = 0.041. Patients who reported disturbed marriage were at almost four-folded risk of depression compared to those without disturbed marriage (AOR = 3.50, 95% CI = 1.23-9.98), p = 0.019. Patients with financial problems were at almost double risk for developing depression compared to those without financial problems (AOR = 2.37, 95% CI = 1.16-4.85), p = 0.019. Those with stressful experience were significantly more likely to have depression compared to those without stressful experience (AOR = 4.75, 95% CI = 2.58-8.71), p < 0.001. Opposed to patients without a family history of depression, those with such history were at higher significant risk for depression (AOR = 2.75, 95% CI = 1.23-6.14), p = 0.014. Also, patients who reported sleep disorders were at nearly double folds of having depression compared to those without such disorders (AOR = 2.24, 95% CI = 1.16-4.30), p = 0.016. CONCLUSION: Depression among young adult patients (20-40 years) attending primary healthcare centres in Tabuk is very high. However, it is mostly mild to moderate in its severity. Suicidal thoughts were reported by one-tenth of the participants. Some predictors for depression among them were identified.