Abstract
Introduction: Mental disorders (depression, anxiety and stress) cause disability and aggravate various diseases, including diabetes mellitus and its common complication such as diabetic nephropathy.
Objectives: The current study aimed to investigate the prevalence of mental health disorders (depression, anxiety and stress) and their associated factors among the Iranian older people with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM).
Patients and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 501 subjects with T2DM and 551 subjects without T2DM were selected by a multistage stratified sampling method from Yazd Greater Area, Iran. Delphi method and experts panel were used for selection of priorities of effective factors. The obtained data were analyzed using the chi-square test and Stata software version 14. A P value of ≤0.05 was considered statistically significant.
Results: The prevalence of moderate to severe depression and anxiety was 51.9% and 61.9%, among diabetic, 22% and 33.4% among non-diabetic groups, respectively. According to multiple logistic regression analysis results in diabetics group specified female gender (OR=1.97, 95% CI=1.03-3.75), poor sleep quality (OR=1.08, 95% CI=1.02-1.15), decreased social support (OR=0.89, 95% CI=0.54-1.68), and body mass index (BMI) ≥30 kg/m² (OR=1.6, 95% CI=1.2-5.63) for depression, as well as female gender (OR=2.97, 95% CI=1.5- 5.87), BMI ≥30 kg/m² (OR=2.69, 95% CI=1.22-5.96), and decreased social support (OR=0.87, 95% CI=0.78-0.98) for anxiety as the predicting characteristics.
Conclusion: The present research findings revealed a significantly higher prevalence of depression and anxiety in older people with T2DM rather than older people without T2DM. Therefore, appropriate interventions such as screenings and psychiatric evaluations are necessary to diagnose and treat depression and anxiety in this population, especially the females to avoid diabetic complications like diabetic kidney disease.