Psychological morbidity and illness perception among patients receiving treatment for tuberculosis in a tertiary care centre in Sri Lanka

Abstract

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES: To describe the disease perception and prevalence of depression and anxiety among TB patients at National Hospital for Respiratory Diseases, Welisara, Sri Lanka. METHOD: A descriptive cross sectional study involving TB patients from both inward and outpatient clinic settings was conducted. All consecutive patients who gave informed consent were assessed using the self-administered validated Sinhala and Tamil translations of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and the Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire (BIPQ). RESULTS: A total of 254 inward patients and 176 clinic patients participated. Of the clinic patients, 17.6% screened positive for anxiety and 8.5% screened positive for depression. Of the inward patients 25.2% had depression and 12.6% had anxiety. Mean BIPQ score was 27.44 for the whole population and for clinic and inward patients the mean scores were 23.84 and 29.91, respectively. Prevalence of depression was significantly higher among inward patients (p<0.0001), elderly age groups (p=0.007) and in patients with low education levels (p= 0.012). Previously treated TB patients and those on Category 2 treatment regime had a higher proportion of persons with depression (p=0.004 and p=0.002). Among the Inward patients, previously treated patients, patients with low education level, those with depression and anxiety had a higher BIPQ score (p=0.002, p=0.005, P<0.0001, p=0.001 and P<0.0001, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Psychological morbidity is present among patients undergoing treatment for TB. Addressing this issue will improve treatment outcome and overall wellbeing of the patients.