Depression and its associated factors among patients with asthma at West Gojjam zone public hospitals, Northwest Ethiopia

Depression has been recognized as a significant problem which is associated with undesirable outcomes and poor quality of life among patients with asthma. There is a dearth of evidence about the prevalence of depression and its associated factors among patients with asthma in Ethiopia. A hospital-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 422 adult patients with asthma at West Gojjam Zone Public Hospitals who were selected using a systematic random sampling technique. Depression was assessed using Patient Health Questionnaire-9 tool, and data were collected through face-to-face interviews and patient chart review. The data were entered into Epi-data version 4.6 and exported into SPSS version 26.0 for analysis. Binary logistic regression analysis was conducted to identify factors associated with depression. Adjusted odds ratio with 95% confidence intervals were calculated, and statistical significance was declared at p values < 0.05. The prevalence of depression among patients with asthma was 27.7% (95% CI 23.6–32.5%). In the multivariable analysis, female sex [AOR = 2.64; 95% CI 1.47–4.71], poor social support [AOR = 4.29; 95% CI 2.37–7.78], poor sleep quality [AOR = 4.81; 95% CI 2.74–8.48], and uncontrolled asthma [AOR = 5.89; 95% CI 3.18–10.91] were significantly associated with depressive symptoms. More than one-fourth of patients with asthma were experiencing depression. Being female, poor social support, poor sleep quality, and uncontrolled asthma were significantly associated with depressive symptoms. Designing prevention and intervention strategies addressing the identified associated factors for depression is important to reduce the prevalence of the problem.