Depressive Symptoms among Children with Sickle Cell Anemia in a Tertiary Health Facility in North-Western Nigeria

Abstract

Context

Sickle cell anemia (SCA), being a chronic debilitating condition, places affected children at risk of depression.

Aims

The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence of depressive symptoms in children with SCA, the perceived causes, interventions sought, and associated factors.

Settings and Design

This was a cross-sectional survey involving children with SCA aged 7–15 years attending the pediatric hematology clinic of Usmanu Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital, Sokoto.

Materials and Methods

Information on depressive symptoms was obtained using the short mood and feelings questionnaire for children and adolescents.

Statistical Analysis Used

Data were analyzed using IBM-SPSS version 25.0.

Results

Respondents consisted of 291 child–caregiver pairs with a male-to-female ratio of the children of 1.6:1 and mean age of 11.0 ± 2.7 years. The majority [239 (82.1%)] of the caregivers were female with a mean age of 38.4 ± 7.4 years. Most [217 (74.6%)] of the caregivers were Hausa by tribe, married (269, 92.5%), in a monogamous setting (159, 58.5%), with 129 (44.3%) of them having low socioeconomic status.

One hundred and forty-nine (51.2%) children had depressive symptoms. The commonest perceived causes were requirement for daily drug intake (125, 83.9%), missed school days (119, 79.9%), recurrent illness (115, 77.2%), and stress (114, 76.5%). The most common interventions adopted were prayers (138, 94.5%) and use of distraction (100, 68.5%).

Child age category (P = 0.002), caregiver’s gender (P < 0.001), family setting (P < 0.001), socioeconomic status (P = 0.008), comorbidity (P = 0.021), frequent painful crises (P = 0.001), and frequent hospital admission (P = 0.024) were associated with depressive symptoms and remained independent predictors of depressive symptoms on logistic regression.

Conclusions

Depressive symptoms were common among the subjects and associated with several sociodemographic and medical factors.