Understanding mental health difficulties and associated psychosocial outcomes in adolescents in the HIV clinic at Kenyat
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PRIMARY RESEARCH
Annals of General Psychiatry Open Access
Understanding mental health difficulties and associated psychosocial outcomes in adolescents in the HIV clinic at Kenyatta National Hospital, Kenya Douglas Gaitho1*, Manasi Kumar2 , Dalton Wamalwa1, Grace Nduku Wambua2 and Ruth Nduati1
Abstract Background: Globally adolescents continue to have an upward trend in HIV incidence and AIDS-related mortality. The interplay between the rapid physical growth, sexual maturation, and enormous albeit slow-evolving cognitive and psychological changes in adolescence may partly explain this trend. Our main purpose was to highlight key psychosocial characteristics of HIV-infected adolescents and explore if these characteristics are associated with depression symptoms. Methods: From August to December 2016 after obtaining informed consent, adolescents living with HIV at Kenyatta National Hospital were interviewed using the Home environment, Education and Employment, Activity, Sexuality, Suicide and depression traits (HEADSS) tool combined with the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) to elucidate which key symptoms of depression and link with psychosocial characteristics mapped on HEADSS. In order to determine which psychosocial characteristics were linked with risk of depression, the traits of adolescents who were symptomatic were compared to those who were not using univariate and multivariate regression analysis. Results: All the 270 adolescents offered participation in the study accepted to enroll. The aged 10–19 years were recruited and mean age was 14.75 and 53.7% (n = 145) were males. Overall, 269 (99.9%) were still in school and 52.6% of the adolescents had symptoms of depression. The independent predictors of depression were being of ages 15–19 years [OR = 2.34 (95% CI 1.36, 4.04) P
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