RESULTS:
A total of 121 patients were included in this study between November 2017 and May 2019.The baseline socio-demographic and clinical variables are presented in Table 1. The mean age of study participants was 54.9 ± 7.5 years. The predominant study participants were male [83.5% (95% CI, 0.75-0.89)]. Nearly three-fourths of the patients were either overweight or obese. The overall prevalence (95% CI) of depression in the study population was 70.5% (0.61-0.78). On the other hand, anxiety was present in 64.6% (0.55-0.73) of patients. When a cut-off score of 11 instead of 8 was used on the HADS for diagnosis of depression/ anxiety [Borderline cases excluded (HADS score 8-10)], the prevalence of depression and anxiety was 31.3% (0.22-0.40) and 40.7% (0.31-0.50) respectively. 51.2% (0.41-0.60) of patients had both depression and anxiety. However, when borderline cases (HADS score 8-10) were excluded, both depression and anxiety were present in 19% (0.12-0.27) of patients. The prevalence and characteristics of patients with depression and anxiety are presented in Table 2. Obese individuals were more likely to have depression compared to those individuals with a normal weight (OR 5.7; 95% CI, 1.2-25.5) [Table 3]. The odds of anxiety were higher in patients with dyslipidemia (OR 5.3; 95% CI, 1.9-14.3) compared to those with absence of dyslipidemia (Table 3). The relationship between physical activity and depression/ anxiety is shown in Figure 1. Patients with low levels of physical activity had a higher prevalence of depression and anxiety (p < 0.05). A similar relationship was not observed in those with moderate and high levels of physical activity. Patients with depression demonstrated a worse quality of life compared to those without depression in all domains measured by the SF-36 questionnaire (Figure 2). Among patients with anxiety, quality of life was worse in four out of the eight domains (physical functioning, vitality, mental health and general health measured by the SF-36 questionnaire (Figure 2).