Comparison of psychological distress and its associated factors among chronic disease and healthy subjects in rural Puducherry, India

Context: There is paucity of data on the comparison of psychological distress among chronic noncommunicable disease (NCD) and healthy subjects in developing countries such as India. Objective: To assess and compare psychological distress and its associated factors among chronic disease and healthy subjects. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in a rural field practice area attached to a tertiary care medical institution in Puducherry, India. Data were collected from the chronic disease subjects which included those with diabetes and or hypertension registered in the rural health center. Healthy subjects residing nearest to the corresponding case from the respective village were taken as controls. Psychological distress was assessed by General Health Questionnaire 12 (GHQ 12). Results: There were 260 subjects with 130 in each group. Subjects with chronic disease had significantly higher proportion of psychological distress (50.8%) compared to healthy subjects (35.4%). The mean +- standard deviation GHQ 12 score of those with chronic disease is also significantly higher than that of healthy subjects (13.35 +- 4.89 vs. 11.15 +- 4.43, P< 0.001). Binary logistic regression analysis showed that subjects with diabetes and/or hypertension had higher psychological distress (adjusted odds ratio = 1.9, 95% confidence interval: 1.1-3.5) compared to healthy subjects. Conclusion: Subjects with diabetes and/or hypertension have higher proportion of psychological distress compared to healthy subjects. Screening subjects with chronic NCD for psychological distress may help to take appropriate measures.