Prevalence and severity of depression among caregivers of HIV-infected children in Enugu, South-East Nigeria

Abstract

Background: HIV infection significantly increases depression risk in the caregivers of HIV-infected children. Our study is aimed at determining the depression prevalence and severity in caregivers of children who are infected with HIV. Materials and Methods: This was a hospital-based, cross-sectional, and comparative study. Study participants who met the inclusion criteria were enrolled consecutively to achieve the calculated sample size. Their sociodemographic variables were obtained, and the Zung Self-rating Depression Scale was used to assess the prevalence and severity of depression in the caregivers. Results: There were 352 study participants which comprised 176 caregivers of children infected with HIV, who served as cases and 176 caregivers of HIV-negative children, who served as controls. One hundred and fifty-five (88.1%) of the cases were the biologic caregivers, whereas the biologic caregivers comprised of 133 (75.6%) for the controls. Furthermore, 43 (24.4%) and 133 (75.6%) of the cases were males and females, respectively, whereas 47 (26.7%) and 129 (73.3%) of the controls were, respectively, males and females. The prevalence of depression among the cases and controls was 43.2% and 6.8%, respectively (P < 0.001; odds ratio [OR]: 10.39). Among the cases with depression, 73 (47.1%) were the biological caregivers, whereas 3 (14.3%) were the nonbiological caregivers. This was statistically significant (P = 0.009; OR = 5.341). The severity of depression among the cases was mild depression (52.6%), moderate depression (30.3%), and severe depression (17.1%). Conclusions: There is a high prevalence of depression among the caregivers of children infected with HIV and the biologic caregivers of these children tend to have a higher depression burden than their nonbiologic counterparts.

Keywords

• caregivers
• children
• depression
• hiv
• nigeria