PREVALENCE AND RISK FACTORS OF DEPRESSION IN ETHIOPIA A REVIEW

Abstract

ACKGROUND: Depression is the most common and disabling mental illness in the globe. It accountsfor about 6.5% of the burden of diseases in Ethiopia. Regardless of its severity and relapse rate, there areno synthesized evidences about its prevalence and potential risk factors in Ethiopia. The aim of thisreview was thus to synthesize scientific information about the prevalence and potential risk factors ofdepression in Ethiopia.METHODS: Out of 37 papers, 31 were collected from PubMed, Medline and Google Scholar electronicdatabases, and the remaining six from Addis Ababa University, Department of Psychiatry. But, 13articles were removed after reading the titles; five after reading the abstracts and two after reading themanuscripts and five of them were duplicates. Finally, 12 papers were reviewed and the pooledprevalence was also computed.RESULTS: The pooled prevalence of depression for the five studies, which had used CompositeInternational Diagnostic Interview (CIDI), was 6.8% (95%, CI: 6.4-7.3); but, it increased to 11% (95%CI: 10.4-11.5) when three other studies that had used other screening tools were included. Demographicvariables such as sex, age, marital status, violence, migration and substance use were associated withdepression, but not with economic factors.CONCLUSIONS: More attention should be given to socio-demographic risk factors and intimate partnerviolence, since they are potential risk factors of depression. The prevalence of depression in Ethiopiawas also found comparable to that of some high-income countries.