Evaluation of Depression in Adults With and Without Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: A Comparative Study

Background: Depression is a common psychiatric disorder frequently associated with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and negatively impacts quality of life and disease outcomes. Objective: The objective of this study is to compare the frequency and severity of Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9)-screened clinically significant depressive symptoms among adults with T2DM and non-diabetic adults. Methodology: This cross-sectional comparative study was conducted from August 2025 to April 2026. A total of 114 participants were enrolled using non-probability consecutive sampling and divided equally into T2DM (n = 57) and control (n = 57) groups. Depression was assessed using the PHQ-9 questionnaire, with a score ≥10 indicating clinically significant depression. IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 25 (Released 2017; IBM Corp., Armonk, New York, United States) was used to analyze the data, and the chi-square test was used for categorical variables. Results: Depression was significantly higher in the T2DM group compared to controls. In diabetic patients, 61.40% (n = 35) were depressed, while 38.60% (n = 22) were not depressed. In the control group, 33.33% (n = 19) were depressed, and 66.67% (n = 38) were not depressed (p = 0.003). Depression was more frequent in participants aged 46-50 years and showed significant associations with gender and duration of diabetes. However, no significant difference was observed in depression severity distribution between the two groups. Conclusion: Depression is significantly more prevalent among patients with T2DM compared to non-diabetic individuals.