DEPRESSION

PREVALENCE AND PREDICATORS AMONG PAKISTANI INFERTILE WOMEN

Abstract

Infertility is very stressful event and is proven to associate with depression,
anxiety, sexual dysfunction loneliness, sadness and impaired couple’s relationship. Objectives:
To determine the frequency of depression in infertile females and to determine the various risk
factors associated with infertility and depression. Study Design: Prospective cross sectional
study. Setting: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of Ziauddin University Karachi. Period:
January to June 2014. Methodology: Infertile women were interviewed and the diagnosis and
severity of depression was assessed together with the effects of different predicators such as
age, duration of infertility, employment educational and socioeconomical status using PHQ-
9 scale scoring. Results: This study showed that 199 (58%) of the infertile women suffered
from depression. There was a statistically significant association with socio economical status
while no significant association was detected with age of women, duration of infertility and
educational status. Conclusion: We found a high prevalence of depression among infertile
women. Depression was more among women belonging to higher socioeconomic class.