Recognition of depression in children in general hospital-based paediatric units in Kenya: practice and policy implications
Date
2009-10-28Author
Ndetei David M.
Khasakhala, Lincoln I
Mutiso, Victoria N
Mbwayo, Anne W
Type
Journal ArticleMetadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Background :Physical disorders are commonly comorbid with depression in children attending general medical facilities. However, the depression component is rarely recognise. Methods: A questionnaire on sociodemographics and history of presenting medical conditions was administered together with the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI) to all 11-year-old to 17-year-old children attending at nine medical facilities.Results: In all, 408 children were recruited from 9 health facilities. Whereas the clinicians diagnosed a mental disorder in only 2.5% of the sample studied, 41.3% had CDI scores that suggested mild to moderate depression. The highest proportion of children with depressive symptomatology was found at the Kenyatta National and Teaching Referral Hospital.
Conclusion:Although prevalence rate for depression among children is high, detection rates remain low. This finding has clinical practice and policy implications within and outside Kenya.
URI
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2774682/http://erepository.uonbi.ac.ke:8080/xmlui/handle/123456789/14737
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19863784