Association between Depression and Cardiovascular Risk Factors in Patients of Acute Coronary Syndrome

Aim: To determine the association of depression with gender, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, smoking, obesity, and physical inactivity Study design: Comparative study Place and duration: Department of Cardiology, Bahawal Victoria Hospital, Bahawalpur, from January 2015 to June 2015 Methodology: Two hundred patients with the diagnosis of acute coronary syndrome fulfilling the inclusion criteria were enrolled in the study. The enrolled patients were screened with Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ 9) for the presence and severity of depression. Patients who had PHQ 9 score >= 10 were labeled to have depression. The data was entered and analyzed with SPSS version 17. The patients were divided into two groups: group A, who had depression and Group B, who had no depression. Stratification was done with respect to gender, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, obesity, physical inactivity, and smoking. Chi square test was applied to compare these variables between two groups; p value <0.05 was considered to be significant. Results: Mean age of the population was 56 +/- 12 years. Out of 180 patients, 125 (62.5 %) were males. A total of 39 patients had score > 10 on PHQ 9. Female gender (59.0 %), smoking (51.3 %), and physical inactivity (48.7 %) were more prevalent in group A as compared to group B (32.3 %, 16.1 %, 14.9 % respectively: p <0.05). There was no significant difference in the frequency of hypertension, diabetes mellitus, or obesity between the two groups (p >0.05). Conclusion: In patients of acute coronary syndrome, the presence of depression was significantly associated with female gender, smoking and physical inactivity but not with diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and obesity.