Abstract:
Background: Depression is one of the world’s prevalent mental illnesses. It is a leading cause
of major public health problem globally and it’s frequency has been increasing, particularly in
low and middle-income countries. The magnitude of depression in Sub-Saharan Africa ranges
from 15 to 30%. In Ethiopia, depression is found to be the seventh leading cause of disease
burden and yet, no study was done in West Shewa, Ethiopia.
Objective: This study aimed to assess the magnitude of depression and associated factors
among adult orthopedic outpatients getting treatment at Ambo University Referral Hospital,
West Shewa, Oromia, Ethiopia, 2023.
Methods: An institution based cross-sectional study was conducted among 391 adult orthopedic
patients from January1-30/2023. A systematic random sampling technique was used to select the
study subjects. The data were collected by using structured questionnaire and checklist through
face-to-face interview and chart review techniques. The collected data were checked, coded,
cleaned and entered into Epi-data version 4.6 and then, exported to SPSS version 25.0 for
statistical analysis. In multivariable logistic regression the p-value <0.05 was declared as
statistically significant variables and the strength of association was described using adjusted
odds ratio (AOR) with its respective 95% CI. The binary logistic regression model was fitted.
Result: The prevalence of depression was found to be 38.9% (95% CI: 34.5%, 43.9%), being
female (AOR = 2.41; 95 % CI: 1.45-4.00), chewing chat (AOR = 2.39; 95 % CI: 1.29-4.43), no
disorder on lower limb (AOR = .24; 95 % CI: .07-.85). had ligament injury (AOR = 2.62; 95 %
CI: 1.23-5.59), had no complication (AOR = .07; 95 % CI: .01-.52), had amputation (AOR =
3.83; 95 % CI: (2.09-7.00) were significantly associated with depression.
Conclusion and Recommendations: The study found that the magnitude of depression among
Orthopedic patients nearly half of the participants are considerably developed depression at
Ambo University Referral hospital and being female, chewing chat, who had no disorder on
lower limb, ligament injury, complication and amputation were significantly associated with
depression. Therefore, due attention needed from concerned bodies inorder to tackle this
problem.
