ISSN: 2578-5001
Authors: Enow VAE*, Obassey EMI, Eta TE and Eric A
Background: Depression frequently occurs among hemodialysis patients and it is associated with various adverse outcomes. Objective: This study sought to evaluate the effect of an educational intervention on the coping mechanisms for depression among hemodialysis patients having depression. Methods: This was a hospital based cross sectional interventional study which investigated the effect of education on the patients’ knowledge and practice regarding coping mechanisms for depression. Purposive and consecutive convenient sampling methods were used to select the study site and enroll participants to the study respectively. The study was conducted in the Hemodialysis Center at the Buea Regional Hospital (BRH) in Fako Division, South West Region of Cameroon. The study participants were made up of 63 hemodialysis patients aged 21years and above who met the inclusion criteria and gave their consent to participate in the study. The intervention was education on coping mechanisms for depression that was administered after a pretest. A semi-structured questionnaire made up of 10 questions was used to collect data on knowledge and practice of coping mechanisms for depression before and after the intervention to compare results. Each patient level of depression was noted. Patients with physical and cognitive impairment were excluded. Those who scored 7 and above were said to be knowledgeable and practiced depression coping mechanisms. Data was collected from May 13 to June 15, 2019, data collected was coded and entered into EPI and exported to SPSS version 23 for analysis. Results: The majority (80.6%) of the participants knew and had used one or more of the depression coping mechanisms, but 41.8% of them did not know if it could manage depression effectively. Educating hemodialysis patients on depression coping mechanisms significantly decreased their levels of depression x2 =39.688; (p<0.00). Conclusion: Some patients undergoing hemodialysis were not knowledgeable on the coping mechanisms for depression and did not know if these could manage depression effectively. Therefore, education is vital in decreasing levels of depression amongst hemodialysis patients. This study was conducted in only one health facility hence, the results may not generalized to the entire nation.
Keywords: Prevalence; Depression; Coping mechanisms; Education; Hemodialysis
