Depressive comorbidity in type 2 Diabetes: Prevalence and associated factors

The comorbidity diabetes depression is frequent and would have a synergistic effect. Depression is underdiagnosed in diabetology consultations.

This was a cross-sectional study that included 102 outpatients with type 2 Diabetes mellitus (T2DM) recruited during April and May 2019. A pre-established form was filled out from the interview of the patients and the medical file review. Depression, Therapeutic adherence, self-esteem, temperament, satisfaction of treatment, quality of life and physical activity were assessed by validated questionnaires.

The average age of the patients was 53.4± 8.5 years, sex-ratio was 0.7. 76.5% have exhibited depressive symptoms; 51% of the patients have had moderate to severe depression. Depression was associated with female gender (p=0.04) and psychiatric family history (p=0.01). Patients with depression have had significantly higher HbA1c levels (p=0.05) and significantly lower HDL-C levels (p=0.05). Regarding psychosocial factors, depression was associated with low self-esteem (p= 0.005) and significantly higher scores of depressive (p=0.002) and cyclothymic (p=0.003) temperaments. Depression was also associated with significantly lower treatment satisfaction (p=0.01) and poor quality of life. In multivariate study, factors independently associated with depression were female gender, low HDL-C, quality of life score without diabetes and low self-esteem score.

This study showed, despite limitations, that depression is frequent in patients with T2DM and was associated with several sociodemographic, anamnestic, clinical and psychological characteristics.