Depression and its determinants among hypertensive subjects from the primary health care centres at Tirunelveli district, Tamil Nadu

Background: Depression among elderly persons has become a serious health problem. Despite an increasing number of research studies exploring prevalence of depression among hypertensive patients in high income countries, limited data is available from low and middle income countries particularly in India. People with chronic diseases are more likely to have depression than those without any chronic diseases.Methods: This was across-sectional study. Totally 496 subjects were selected from 4 different Primary Health Centres (PHCs) who attended outpatient department during the study period. The patient health questionnaires (PHQ-9) were used to estimate the prevalence of depression among hypertensive subjects. Basic demographic and behavioral details were also collected. This study was carried out from April to August in 2016 in Tirunelveli district, Tamilnadu, India.Results: The study show 5.8% of subjects had no depression, 42.1% subjects with mild depression, 45.3% had moderate and 6.6% had high depression among hypertensive subjects. Totally 94% hypertensive subjects had depression.Conclusions: The high depression has found more in male, employed, illiterate, non-vegetarian, drinkers, and smokers subjects then compare to other subjects.