Depression and quality of life among adults with pulmonary tuberculosis

Abstract

Objective To determine the association between the depression and the quality of life among patients with pulmonary tuberculosis.  
Materials and methods The sample comprised 113 patients in Khon Kaen Province during November 2011 to January 2012. Tuberculosis data were extracted from hospital records whereas, de-pression and quality of life were collected from Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) and The World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL–BREF) respectively. Statistical analyses included descriptive statistics, analysis of the correlation between the score of depression and the score of quality of life by Spearman rank correlation and analysis of the association between age, income, depression phase of treatment and the score of quality of life by multiple linear regression.  
Result Depression was found in 20.4% of patients with pulmonary tuberculosis. Factors associated with quality of life were age, phase of tuberculosis treatment and depression. Older had poorer physical health than younger. Patients in the intensive treatment phase had poorer psychological health than those in the continuation treatment phase. Patients with depression had poorer physical and psychological health than those without depression. Depression had a poor negative correlation with of life between low to middle. After controlling for other confounders such as age and income, depression resulted in poorer physical and psychological health in patients during both intensive and continuation treatment phase.  
Conclusion Depression was common in patients with pulmonary tuberculosis and resulted in poorer quality of life during both phases of treatment. Management of public health system for better quality of life needs both screening and treatment of depression together with the treatment of tuberculosis.