Burden of depressive symptoms in South African public healthcare patients with established rheumatoid arthritis: a case-control study

The burden of depressive symptoms and how demographic and disease characteristics relate to depressive symptoms in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) that belong to developing populations, are currently unknown and were therefore assessed in a case-control study in public healthcare patients in South Africa, a lower-middle income country. Public healthcare attendance is a surrogate of belonging to the developing population in South Africa. Demographic and RA features were recorded in 441 public and 202 private healthcare patients. The outcome characteristic was the Arthritis Impact Measure Scales (AIMS) depression score. Relationships of patient characteristics and public healthcare attendance with depressive symptoms were determined in multivariable regression models. The mean ± SD AIMS depression score was 3.6±2.1 and 2.3±1.7 in public and private healthcare patients, respectively (p