| dc.description.abstract | The study was entitled “factors influencing the management of depression among patients diagnosed with chronic illnesses in Mubende regional referral hospital”. In Africa, a significant proportion of the global burden of depression among patients diagnosed with chronic illnesses continues to be a major cause of deaths with at least 69% of deaths on the continent. This study was therefore initiated to identify the health related factors, socio-economic related factors as well as institutional related factors that were management of depression among patients diagnosed with chronic illnesses. Literature in relation to the objectives of the study was reviewed to identify the agreements and disagreements between authors.
Using a cross sectional research design and adopting a quantitative research approach, the study was able to acquire information from a sample that was obtained using Kreijce and Morgan, (1970), approach. The 80 respondents that were used in the study were acquired after applying sampling techniques of stratified and simple random sampling. The data used in this study was collected using questionnaire and beck depressive inventory tool. The responses were later cleaned, edited, coded before they could fully be analyzed. The analysis was based on the 5- likert scale of 1-5 that gauged the responses obtained.
The major conclusions of the study were that patients are depressed in varying levels from mild, moderate, severe to extreme depression. Moreover, depressed patients exhibit a number of symptoms ranging including despair and sadness, inability to concentrate or dizziness, body impairments, frustration, stress, numbness, loss of balance or coordination as well as difficulty in speaking. Furthermore, management of depression among patients with chronic illnesses is affected by institutional factors including poor assessment and treatment, lack of referrals, busy schedules by medics, inadequate staffing with no mental health workers as well as inadequate funding to health facilities.
The study recommended that the government should equip health facilities with modern equipments/facilities for handling depressed patients with chronic illnesses, the hospital should set up a training program and sensitization framework as well as identifying the specific support needs for managing depression among patients with chronic illnesses. | en_US |
