Prevalence and associated factors of depression among post-stroke patients in Bangladesh

To assess the prevalence of depression and its associated factors among patients with stroke in Bangladesh. We conducted a cross-sectional study among 164 post-stroke patients attending two hospitals in Dhaka city between January and June 2011. Depression was measured using the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale. Factors associated with depression were analyzed using multivariate logistic regression. Results: The prevalence of depression was 70 and 32 % had severe depression. The mean ± sd age of the participants was 58.91 ± 7.03 years. Multivariate regression analysis revealed that factors significantly associated with depression were living in a joint family (OR = 13.5, 95 % CI = 1.3–145.7, p = 0.032), those unable to perform daily activities by themselves (OR = 14.9, 95 % CI = 2.0–108.1, p = 0.008) and those with comorbid dysphasia (OR = 9.5, 95 % CI = 1.0–86.9, p = 0.046) and hypertension (OR = 5.2, 95 % CI = 2.3–15.4, p = 0.012). Depression is a significant health problem among post-stroke patients in Bangladesh. This leads to careful management of depression for social support to achieve better patient outcome.