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Depression, suicidality and associated risk factors among police officers in urban Tanzania: a cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: The WHO has classified depression as a disease of public concern. Police officers are a particular subpopulation group that is at an increased risk for mental health problems. This study examined the prevalence of depression, suicidality and associated risk factors among police officers...

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Autores principales: Njiro, Belinda Jackson, Ndumwa, Harrieth Peter, Msenga, Charles Joseph, Kawala, Thomas, Matola, Ezekiel, Mhonda, Juhudi, Corbin, Hillary, Ubuguyu, Omary, Likindikoki, Samuel
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BMJ Publishing Group 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8204155/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34222794
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/gpsych-2020-100448
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author Njiro, Belinda Jackson
Ndumwa, Harrieth Peter
Msenga, Charles Joseph
Kawala, Thomas
Matola, Ezekiel
Mhonda, Juhudi
Corbin, Hillary
Ubuguyu, Omary
Likindikoki, Samuel
author_facet Njiro, Belinda Jackson
Ndumwa, Harrieth Peter
Msenga, Charles Joseph
Kawala, Thomas
Matola, Ezekiel
Mhonda, Juhudi
Corbin, Hillary
Ubuguyu, Omary
Likindikoki, Samuel
author_sort Njiro, Belinda Jackson
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: The WHO has classified depression as a disease of public concern. Police officers are a particular subpopulation group that is at an increased risk for mental health problems. This study examined the prevalence of depression, suicidality and associated risk factors among police officers in urban Tanzania. AIMS: The aim of this study was to examine the prevalence of depression, suicidality and associated risk factors among police officers in Tanzania. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted between April 2019 and October 2020 among 550 participants in Dar es Salaam recruited using a multistage cluster sampling technique. The Patient Health Questionnaire-9 was used to screen for depression and suicidality. The Interpersonal Support Evaluation List-12 tool was used to measure perceived social support. Descriptive statistics were summarised using frequencies and percentages. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were used to establish associations between predictors of interest, depression and suicidality. RESULTS: There were 497 participants in the study. Of these, 76.6% (376 of 491) were men, and the median (IQR) age was 37.0 (17) years. Around 19.8% (96 of 486) of the police officers screened positive for depression and 15.4% (75 of 413) for suicidality. A significant proportion was either moderately (29 of 96, 30.2%) or severely depressed (8 of 75, 10.7 %). Of those who experienced suicidal thoughts, 10.7% (8 of 75) reported having daily suicidal thoughts. Perceiving low social support was associated with an increased risk of reporting depression (adjusted OR (aOR): 28.04, 95% CI: 8.42 to 93.37, p<0.001) and suicidality (aOR: 10.85, 95% CI: 3.56 to 33.08, p<0.001) as compared with those with high perceived social support. CONCLUSION: The magnitude of depression and suicidality among police officers in urban Tanzania is alarmingly high. The study findings indicate the need for routine screening for depression and suicidality among police officers and design appropriate mental health responsive services in this population.
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spelling pubmed-82041552021-07-01 Depression, suicidality and associated risk factors among police officers in urban Tanzania: a cross-sectional study Njiro, Belinda Jackson Ndumwa, Harrieth Peter Msenga, Charles Joseph Kawala, Thomas Matola, Ezekiel Mhonda, Juhudi Corbin, Hillary Ubuguyu, Omary Likindikoki, Samuel Gen Psychiatr Original Research BACKGROUND: The WHO has classified depression as a disease of public concern. Police officers are a particular subpopulation group that is at an increased risk for mental health problems. This study examined the prevalence of depression, suicidality and associated risk factors among police officers in urban Tanzania. AIMS: The aim of this study was to examine the prevalence of depression, suicidality and associated risk factors among police officers in Tanzania. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted between April 2019 and October 2020 among 550 participants in Dar es Salaam recruited using a multistage cluster sampling technique. The Patient Health Questionnaire-9 was used to screen for depression and suicidality. The Interpersonal Support Evaluation List-12 tool was used to measure perceived social support. Descriptive statistics were summarised using frequencies and percentages. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were used to establish associations between predictors of interest, depression and suicidality. RESULTS: There were 497 participants in the study. Of these, 76.6% (376 of 491) were men, and the median (IQR) age was 37.0 (17) years. Around 19.8% (96 of 486) of the police officers screened positive for depression and 15.4% (75 of 413) for suicidality. A significant proportion was either moderately (29 of 96, 30.2%) or severely depressed (8 of 75, 10.7 %). Of those who experienced suicidal thoughts, 10.7% (8 of 75) reported having daily suicidal thoughts. Perceiving low social support was associated with an increased risk of reporting depression (adjusted OR (aOR): 28.04, 95% CI: 8.42 to 93.37, p<0.001) and suicidality (aOR: 10.85, 95% CI: 3.56 to 33.08, p<0.001) as compared with those with high perceived social support. CONCLUSION: The magnitude of depression and suicidality among police officers in urban Tanzania is alarmingly high. The study findings indicate the need for routine screening for depression and suicidality among police officers and design appropriate mental health responsive services in this population. BMJ Publishing Group 2021-06-14 /pmc/articles/PMC8204155/ /pubmed/34222794 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/gpsych-2020-100448 Text en © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2021. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Original Research
Njiro, Belinda Jackson
Ndumwa, Harrieth Peter
Msenga, Charles Joseph
Kawala, Thomas
Matola, Ezekiel
Mhonda, Juhudi
Corbin, Hillary
Ubuguyu, Omary
Likindikoki, Samuel
Depression, suicidality and associated risk factors among police officers in urban Tanzania: a cross-sectional study
title Depression, suicidality and associated risk factors among police officers in urban Tanzania: a cross-sectional study
title_full Depression, suicidality and associated risk factors among police officers in urban Tanzania: a cross-sectional study
title_fullStr Depression, suicidality and associated risk factors among police officers in urban Tanzania: a cross-sectional study
title_full_unstemmed Depression, suicidality and associated risk factors among police officers in urban Tanzania: a cross-sectional study
title_short Depression, suicidality and associated risk factors among police officers in urban Tanzania: a cross-sectional study
title_sort depression, suicidality and associated risk factors among police officers in urban tanzania: a cross-sectional study
topic Original Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8204155/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34222794
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/gpsych-2020-100448
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