The importance of social support in the associations between psychological distress and somatic health problems and socio-economic factors among older adults living at home: a cross sectional study

Abstract Background: Psychological distress is broadly defined as a state of emotional suffering characterized by symptoms of depression and anxiety combined by other somatic symptoms like; insomnia, headaches, and lack of energy that is likely to vary across different areas. Therefore, this study aimed at assessing the prevalence of psychological distress and its’ associated factors among nurses in public hospitals, Southwest Ethiopia, 2017/18.Method: An institutional-based cross-sectional study was conducted in public hospitals, Southwest Ethiopia from February 1st, 2018 to April 1st, 2018. The total number of nurses who fulfill the inclusion criteria were enrolled. Data was collected using the predesigned tool like Self-Reporting Questionnaire version 20 (SRQ 20). Data were entered using EPI INFO version 7 and was exported to statistical packages for social science (SPSS) version 21.0 for analysis. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression was employed and odds ratio with 95% confidence interval was used to assess the degree of association between variables. Variables with a P-value of less than 0.05 were considered as statistically significant.Result: A total of 282 eligible nurses were enrolled in the study with mean age of 28.71 [SD ±7.047]. The prevalence of psychological distress among nurses was 78(27.7%). Predictor variables like; job title [AOR= 10.13, 95% CI (1.85, 55.41)], work experience [AOR= 4.98, 95% CI (1.59, 15.568)], interaction with staffs [AOR= .305, 95% CI (.117, .796)], fatigue [AOR= 2.54, 95% CI (1.072, 6.02)], social support [AOR= .189, 95% CI (.075, .474)], perfectionism [AOR= 5.697, 95% CI (1.449, 22.39)] and insomnia [AOR= 3.82, 95% CI (1.52, 9.579)] were found to be strong predictor variables for psychological distress.Conclusion: This study revealed that a considerable proportion of nurses had psychological distress. Therefore, strong social support, upgraded working status, and good interaction with staff should be encouraged among nurses working in the health setting to cope up with different stressors.

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Depressive symptoms among orphans and vulnerable adolescents in childcare homes in Nepal: a cross-sectional study

BMC Psychiatry ◽

10.1186/s12888-020-02863-y ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 20 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Kumari Bandana Bhatt ◽

Tawatchai Apidechkul ◽

Peeradone Srichan ◽

Navin Bhatt

Keyword(s):

Social Support ◽

Depressive Symptoms ◽

Cross Sectional Study ◽

Health Problems ◽

Sectional Study ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Significance Level ◽

Validated Questionnaire ◽

Physical Health Problems ◽

High Social Support

Abstract Background Orphans and vulnerable adolescents (OVAs) living in child care homes (CCHs) are vulnerable to depressive symptoms due to a poor environment and a lack of receiving good care and love from their parents. This study aimed to estimate the presence of depressive symptoms and determine factors associated with it among OVAs living in CCHs in Nepal. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted to collect the information from OVAs aged 13–17 years living in 22 CCHs from five districts of Nepal. The CCHs were selected by a simple random method. A validated questionnaire and the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) were used to assess depressive symptoms among the participants. Those with mild to severe BDI-II scores were defined as having clinically relevant depressive symptoms. Logistic regression was used to detect associations between variables at the significance level α = 0.05. Results A total of 602 adolescents participated in the study; 51.0% were females, the average age was 14.7 years, and 32.2% were members of indigenous groups. The overall presence of clinically relevant depressive symptoms was 33.2%. After controlling for all potential confounding factors, five factors were found to be associated with depress among OVAs. Females were 1.96 times more likely to develop depressive symptoms than males (95% CI = 1.36–2.83). Those adolescents who used alcohol were 3.42 times more likely to develop depressive symptoms than those who did not (95% CI = 1.16–10.12). Those who had health problems were 2.00 times more likely to develop depressive symptoms than those who did not (95% CI = 1.36–2.94). Those who had low social support were 1.81 times more likely to develop depressive symptoms than those who had high social support (95% CI = 1.08–3.03), and those who had been bullied were 1.97 times more likely to develop depressive symptoms than those who were not bullied (95% CI = 1.23–3.15). Conclusion The magnitude of clinically relevant depressive symptoms in adolescents living in CCHs was found to be high in Nepal. There is an urgent need for effective intervention to curtail this problem among OVAs in CCHs in Nepal, with a focus on females, alcohol users, those with physical health problems and with less social support, and those who are bullied.

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