Depression among Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus and its Association with Poor Glycemic Control in Patients Visiting Tertiary Care Hospital of Islamabad

Depression among type 2 diabetes mellitus patient results in negative health outcomes. To determine the association between depression and glycemic control in patients suffering from type 2 diabetes mellitus. This comparative cross-sectional study was conducted in the diabetic patients attending diabetic clinic of Capital Hospital, Islamabad which is a tertiary care hospital from 1st September 2015 to 30th November 2015. The serum glycosylated hemoglobin levels (HbA1c) were recorded from the medical records of patients while Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) was used to assess depression in these patients. Poor glycemic control was taken as value of HbA1c > 7%. Equal number of depressive and non-depressive type 2 diabetics were recruited. The data was analyzed using SPSS 20.0 and Chi-square was used to find out association between depression and glycemic control among type 2 diabetes mellitus patients. A total of 250 type 2 diabetes patients were enrolled in the study. Their mean HbA1c level was 8.5% (S.D ± 2.15) and the PHQ-9 score was 9.0 (S.D ± 4.11). Almost 83.2% patients had poor glycemic control and were depressed while 57.6% had poor glycemic control but were non-depressed. Depression was strongly associated with poor glycemic control in type 2 diabetes mellitus. Depression among type 2 diabetes patients was significantly associated with poor glycemic control. Type 2 diabetic patients should be regularly monitored for their glycemic control and assessed for depression and treated accordingly.