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Abstract

Introduction: This descriptive (cross-sectional) study compares depressionlevels among diabetic patients using different treatments (insulin users v/s non-insulin) atHyderabad. Objectives: This study evaluates the depressive symptoms and their associationwith education, medication adherence, demographic variables and health complaints amongdiabetics based on type of therapy used. Setting: Liaquat University Hospital, Hyderabad.Material and methods: 264 patients visiting Liaquat University Hospital, Hyderabad and differentdiabetic clinics at Hyderabad in the months of February and March, 2014 were included in thestudy via simple random sampling. 106 patients (40.16%) of the total sample are females and158 (59.84%) are males. Patients were interviewed to attain information about age, sex, onsetand type of diabetes, type of medication used (insulin or oral hypoglycemic), glycemic control,medication adherence and diabetes associated health complaints. Results: 36.36% of thepeople in the sample were insulin users while 63.64% were not. Out of 96 insulin users, 30.2%of the sample has DM-type 1 and 69.8% have DM-type 2. Mean depression level of male insulinusers is 21.93 while that of females is 22.81. Conclusion: Demographic factors, low education,additional health complaints and low medication adherence also significantly contributed todepression levels. Mental health assessment of diabetics should be made a part of routineclinical assessment at primary healthcare clinics to decrease adversarial consequences amongdiabetic patients.